Marta Newman
BBC Breakfast Producer

Hannah Clarke, 37, is a single mum of two from Rutland in the East Midlands. She has a fixed mortgage deal which is up for renewal in August.

But she can lock in a deal from early March. “At the moment I’m paying £455 a month on my mortgage, at one point it looked like that was going to go close to £900,” she says.

“Thankfully now with the rates coming down I’m looking at £650 to £700.”

Clarke juggles two part-time jobs. She's a beautician but also works on the phones on a taxi rank.

“Once all of my bills, my mortgage, food and fuel has come out, there is very, very little left over,” she says.

“I don’t want to lose this place and I don’t want to lose the longer term security of having my own house and being able to pass that down to the children, having my mortgage paid off by the time I retire so I actually can retire.”

Dearbail Jordan
Business reporter

As we get ready to hear from the Bank of England, it's important to remember today is about what it says, not what it does.

The Bank is widely expected not to cut the interest rate from 5.25%.

What it might do is give some indication of when the rate could fall which means that everyone – banks, financial markets, economists, journalists – will be combing through the minutes of the latest Bank of England rate-setting meeting for any hints.

That’s not as easy as it sounds because sometimes the language the Bank uses is, frankly, as clear as mud.

However, recently the Bank’s governor, Andrew Bailey, has been pretty unequivocal in his outlook.

"My view at the moment is it's really too early to start speculating about cutting interest rates,” he said in December.

We'll be keeping an ear out to see if he changes his tune today.

The Bank of England has a target to keep inflation at 2%, but the current rate is well above that.

The traditional response to high inflation is to put up interest rates.

This makes borrowing more expensive, and can mean some people with mortgages see their monthly payments go up. Some saving rates also increase.

When people have less money to spend, they buy fewer things, reducing the demand for goods and - in theory - slowing price rises.

Businesses also borrow less, making them less likely to create jobs, and may cut staff.

In December, the Bank left rates unchanged, and economists think the Bank will do the same today.

Inflation is the increase in the price of something over time. If a bottle of milk costs £1 but £1.05 a year later, then annual milk inflation is 5%.

Higher food and energy costs have been key drivers of inflation in recent years.

Oil and gas were in greater demand as life got back to normal after Covid.

Meanwhile, when Russia invaded Ukraine, many countries introduced sanctions against Russia - a major oil and gas producer, which sent wholesale energy prices higher.

The war also reduced the amount of grain available, pushing up global food prices as well as other production costs, such as fertiliser.

Both Ukraine and Russia are major exporters of fertiliser. This effect was compounded in the UK by a shortage of salad and other vegetables.

Alcohol prices in restaurants and pubs also rose.

Although many elements of inflation are global, there are concerns that some are domestic, such as rising wages, with more than 930,000 job vacancies remaining in the UK.

Faisal Islam
Economics editor

The decision-makers at the Bank of England know they will have to navigate some tricky waters with the public, politics and the markets over the coming year.

Few expect there will be any changes from the current base rate of 5.25% today.

The IMF’s new forecast assumes no changes in the first half of the year, and then only two cuts down to 4.75% by the end of the year.

The Federal Reserve in the US kept rates on hold yesterday and gave little indication of imminent cuts.

The crux of the situation is that the headline rate of inflation - the rate at which prices rise - may fall very rapidly, even below the 2% target by spring, alongside actual falls in domestic energy prices.

But interest rates are not expected to fall so fast.

Read more: When will the Bank of England start to cut interest rates?

Interest rates are the extra money that gets charged on top of a loan.

For example, if you borrow £100 from a bank and it charges a 5% interest rate, you will pay back £105.

The Bank of England is the UK’s central bank and it is independent from the government. It sets a base rate and this influences how much lenders will charge borrowers who take out a mortgage, a loan or a credit card.

So if the Bank of England puts its interest rate up, that means you'll pay more interest on borrowed money - unless you’ve borrowed it at a fixed rate.

Interest rates are often a big deal for people with mortgages, especially those who do not have a loan with a fixed rate.

But it is not all bad news, as higher interest rates should mean an increase in the interest people earn on savings - though banks can be slow to pass on these rises.

Read more here: How an interest rate rise affects you and your money

Nadia Ragozhina
Live reporter

Good morning, and welcome to our live coverage as we wait for the Bank of England’s latest decision on the interest rate at midday.

The UK’s official interest rate, which is also known as the “base rate”, currently stands at 5.25% - that’s the highest for nearly 16 years.

Economists widely expect the Bank to leave the rate where it is for now - we won’t know until midday.

Whatever happens, our team of experts will be here to report on the decision and explain what it means for mortgages, credit cards, savings and everything else it affects.

Stay with us and we'll bring you the latest.