The central bank confirmed it has cancelled all public engagements for its policymakers where they were due to give comments until after the July 4 national poll.  

A spokesperson for the Bank says: “As with previous general elections, the Bank will be following the Cabinet Office’s election guidance, which includes limiting communications activities until after the election.   

“Core communications in pursuit of our statutory objectives, such as Monetary Policy Committee and The Financial Policy Committee minutes, records and summaries, necessary supervisory statements and routine data releases, will take place as planned.”  

Bank of England chief economist Huw Pill had been due to make a speech yesterday, but this was cancelled at short notice.  

This decision will not stop the Bank from setting interest rates at its next scheduled meeting on 20 June.  

On Wednesday, inflation over the year to April, fell sharply from 3.2% to close in on the Bank’s 2% target, according to official data. Although economists had forecast a fall to 2.1%.   

Also, key services inflation figures, a closely-watched measure by the MPC was higher than expected, coming in at 5.9% year-on-year in April, ahead of consensus expectations of 5.5%.  

This led Goldman Sachs, HSBC and Deutsche Bank to forecast that the UK’s first interest rate cut to come in August, rather than June.     

Money markets now expect ‘no change’ next month, with a 93% chance that bank rate will be maintained at 5.25% in June.