A shock rise in inflation has prompted the Bank of England to raise borrowing costs for an 11th consecutive month.
Bank rate has been hiked by 0.25 percentage points to 4.25% – a decision that will add more costs to households with tracker and standard variable mortgages.
The quarter point rise follows last month’s larger increase of 0.5 percentage points.
A pause for breath had been widely tipped in advance of the Bank’s rate-setting meeting.
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That was because the pace of price growth in the economy had been easing since inflation peaked at a 41-year high in October last year.
But official data released on Wednesday, which economists had thought would show a further slowing, confirmed the consumer prices index (CPI) measure actually accelerated to 10.4% in February.
That was driven by temporary factors such as the salad shortage and the end of pub drink promotions.
Of greater concern to the Bank would have been a rise in a measure of inflation that strips out many volatile factors.
It also showed an increase and suggested that so-called core inflation had become more sticky for the economy than had been expected.
