We are just a few minutes away from learning the Bank of England's decision on interest rates - stay with us as our correspondents and reporters provide you the latest news and analysis.

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, or have a fixed-rate deal ending soon.

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: How an interest rate rise affects you and your money

One person who will be affected by whatever the Bank of England decides to do is self-employed James Price. He and his partner are first-time buyers who have been looking for their “dream home” for about a year.

But their plans have been pushed back — first by the pandemic and then by the cost of living. Rising interest rates present yet another headache as James wants to make sure he and his partner can keep on top of their mortgage.

“It’s definitely challenging,” he said.

“The interest rates may go up again for another reason altogether, so it’s about making sure we’ve got enough money and affordability to continue making those payments.”

Image source, Reuters

UK interest rates haven’t budged since the Bank of England raised them to 5.25% since last August.

There has been intense speculation this year about when it could cut rates and that now seems to be affecting the housing market with buyers appearing to wait to see what happens to interest rates before making a move.

Crest Nicholson, the UK housebuilder, recently said activity had slowed since Easter because of volatile mortgage rates and speculation about borrowing costs.

Meanwhile, the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors said the market had softened since May but surmised that this was delaying rather than derailing an expected improvement in the market for the year ahead.

The medicine appears to be working – even if it may have a bitter aftertaste.

Yesterday’s figures revealed inflation has fallen to the Bank of England’s 2% target for the first time in almost three years as higher borrowing costs reduce spending power, curbing the extent to which businesses can raise prices.

But that doesn’t mean the Bank is likely to cut rates yet. For its job is not just to return inflation to target but to keep it there.

It was already primed for inflation to rebound slightly in the coming months, as energy bills increase in the autumn. But yesterday’s figures, showed services inflation – reflecting items such as cinema tickets, restaurant meals and holidays – remains high at 5.7%.

Along with other data on wage growth, that may have stoked some rate setters' concerns that price pressures aren’t fully contained. So economists increasingly think it might be the autumn before rate cuts begin; little comfort to the hundreds of thousands set to re-mortgage soon.

Image source, Reuters

There’s been a lot of noise about when the Bank of England will start cutting interest rates - but to be honest, no-one knows for sure.

When we last spoke to the Bank’s governor, Andrew Bailey, he told us the UK was “on the way” to a cut, but a firm decision is yet to be made.

Today the expectation from economists is that rates will be kept at 5.25% as the Bank looks to see inflation, the rate at which prices rise, drop further.

But what has changed is the Bank’s optimism. Bailey sounded far more dovish, telling us in March that “we don't have to actually get inflation all the way back to target… to cut rates for instance, what we have to do is be convinced that it is going there”.

Most economists are forecasting a first interest rate cut in the summer.

The Bank of England is not widely expected to cut interest rates today.

We can never be 100% sure what the Bank will do – but if it does choose to keep rates at 5.25%, the announcement is still very important. That’s because we might get clues about when a cut could happen.

One thing we’ll be looking at is how the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has voted. This is the nine-member committee which meets to decide what happens to interest rates.

When the interest rate announcement is made, the Bank also publishes minutes from the MPC’s meeting which shows exactly how each person voted.

For the last couple of meetings, one or two MPC members have voted to reduce rates to 5% while the majority have chosen to hold. If three or four vote for a cut this time, that would signal a shift in the Bank’s thinking - and could pave the way for a drop in August or September.

Good morning from the Bank of England, the building I’ll literally be locked in for the next hour.

I’m here to report on the interest rate. We journalists get to see the announcement an hour before it is released so we can check out how the Bank came to its decision and write our copy in time for noon.

Because the information we see is so market sensitive, the Bank has to make sure that it is secure before release – so we’re locked in the basement.

Before that, we have to put away our phones in lockers. We can take our laptops into the secure room but we only get the wi-fi password a few seconds before midday.

There’s tea, coffee and biscuits laid on so we can mainline caffeine and sugar while we’re digesting the decision. Should be fun – see you on the other side.

Welcome to our live page coverage as we await a decision from the Bank of England on interest rates.

Most economists are expecting policymakers to hold UK rates at 5.25% when the central bank announces its latest decision at noon.

The announcement will come a day after official figures showed that inflation returned to the 2% target last month, for the first time since July 2021.

Stay with us as we bring you the latest news and analysis.