The Monetary Policy Committee also agreed to maintain the quantitative easing programme at £375bn.
The Bank of England unanimously voted to hold the base rate at 0.5% for the third month in a row.
The Monetary Policy Committee also agreed to maintain the quantitative easing programme at £375bn.
Ian McCafferty voted for a rate rise from August 2015 to January 2016 but has followed the rest of the MPC in voting to hold rates since February.
As revealed in the Bank’s inflation report the MPC warned that uncertainty on the EU referendum is weighing on activity such as capital expenditure and commercial property transactions and may result in softer growth in the first half of 2016.
With the markets harder to interpret over the next few months because of the referendum the committee said it was inclined to be more cautious about data news.
The MPC was cautiously optimistic on domestic growth. It said the pickup in the price of oil and sterling’s recent depreciation will support a rise in CPI inflation, which stood at 0.5% in March but is still some way off the Bank’s 2.0% target.
Globally it ruled that concerns about China have lessened, but GDP growth indicators in the United States have been disappointing.
It therefore concluded that global growth will continue to be subdued by historic standards.
