Bank of England interest rates announcement LIVE as rates expected to rise

Interest rates are set to be raised by the Bank of England for the 13th time in a row today.

The Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) will announce its decision on whether to raise rates at midday.

It comes after figures on Wednesday showed that inflation was not eaising - with the UK’s Consumer Prices Index (CPI) unchanged in May at a rate of 8.7%, according to the Office for National Statistics.

The MPC is expected to rise interest rates by 0.25 percentage points to 4.75%. However some experts say the rate could rise even higher by 0.5 percentage points to 5%.

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The latest Bank of England announcement comes as concerns continue to mount over the mortgage market, with the average two-year fixed residential mortgage now above 6%, according to data from Moneyfactscompare.co.uk.

Expectations of where rates will peak have surged in recent weeks, with markets now anticipating a high of 6% by early next year. It would mean rates hit the highest level in more than two decades.

Sandra Horsfield, an economist for Investec Economics, said: "Settling on the larger of the two risks adding fuel to the fire for rate expectations, a message the MPC will think long and hard about given the impact this would have for what is now termed the ‘mortgage time bomb’ for households and landlords that refinance borrowing."

We will have the buildup to the announcement and live reaction in the blog below.

Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves has told BBC Radio 4 that the average inflation rate “masks something much bigger”.

Ms Reeves said: “I’m incredibly concerned about inflation, I think the responsibility is to do all we can to help those who are most impacted by these