The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee voted unanimously to maintain Bank Rate at 3.75% citing global unrest increasing the cost of energy and other commodities affecting households and businesses. As a result the MPC anticipates a near term increase in inflation as it continues efforts to bring it down to the 2% target- In published meeting minutes the committee suggested CPI inflation was now likely to be between 3 and 3.5% over the next couple of quarters, having previously predicted it could fall back to 2% from April.  [...]