The new rate is 0.75 per cent, up from 0.5 per cent, following what is only the second increase in a decade.

The committee’s latest Inflation Report for August 2018 states that future increases “are likely to be at a gradual pace and to a limited extent”.

However, it adds: “The MPC continues to recognise that the economic outlook could be influenced significantly by the response of households, businesses and financial markets to developments related to the process of EU withdrawal.”

If the UK economy develops broadly in line with the Bank’s Inflation Report projections, an “ongoing tightening of monetary policy over the forecast period would be appropriate to return inflation sustainably to the two per cent target at a conventional horizon”, it said.