Bank of England boss urges firms to hold back price rises or risk higher rates

The Bank of England governor, Andrew Bailey, expects inflation to ‘fall sharply really from the early summer throughout the rest of the year’. Photograph: Maxian/Getty Images/iStockphoto

The Bank of England governor, Andrew Bailey, has called on businesses to hold back price rises, telling them that interest rates will need to rise again unless inflation falls.

Bailey, who was speaking after the central bank raised its base rate on Thursday to a 14-year high of 4.25% from 4%, said inflation was too high and the central bank would need to take further action unless it began to fall by the summer.