Next Bank of England meeting — BoE rate decision countdown

What is the Bank of England rate decision?

The Bank of England (BoE) sets the UK's main interest rate, Bank Rate, through its nine-member Monetary Policy Committee (MPC): the Governor, three Deputy Governors, the Chief Economist and four external members appointed by the Chancellor. Its job is to keep UK inflation at the government's 2% target.

The MPC holds eight scheduled decisions a year. Each announcement publishes the new Bank Rate, the vote split (how many members voted to hike, hold or cut) and the minutes of the meeting — all at the same moment. Four of the eight — in 2027 February, April, July and November — also come with the Monetary Policy Report, the Bank's quarterly forecasts, followed by a press conference with the Governor. Those are marked MPR in the schedule above.

What time is the BoE decision — and what time is that for you?

Decisions are announced at 12:00 noon UK time, always on a Thursday. The UK changes its clocks on the same weekends as the rest of Europe, so the gap to Frankfurt or Paris stays at one hour all year — but against New York it shifts for a week or two in March and October/November.

• London: 12:00 PM
• Central Europe: 1:00 PM
• New York: 7:00 AM (8:00 AM during the short DST gap)
• Singapore / Hong Kong: 7:00–8:00 PM
• Sydney: 10:00–11:00 PM

The countdown at the top converts the announcement to your clock automatically.

Why the BoE decision moves the pound

Bank Rate decides what it pays to hold sterling. A hike, or a more hawkish vote split than expected, tends to lift the British pound against the dollar and the euro; a cut or a dovish split tends to weaken it. The pairs that react most are GBP/USD, EUR/GBP and GBP/JPY, and the UK 100 index often moves the other way to the pound because so many of its companies earn abroad.

The vote split is often the real surprise. Because the BoE publishes how each member voted at the same moment as the decision, a hold with more members than expected voting to cut can move GBP as much as an actual cut. That is why the calendar lists the "MPC Vote Hike / Unchanged / Cut" lines alongside the rate itself.

How traders handle BoE day

• Read the vote, not just the rate: compare the split with what was expected — it is the fastest signal of where policy is heading.
• Watch the MPR meetings: the quarterly forecasts and press conference add a second wave of movement after 12:00.
• Mind spreads on the crosses: EUR/GBP and GBP/JPY spreads widen more than GBP/USD around the release.
• Check the US calendar: BoE Thursdays often share the afternoon with US jobless claims at 8:30 AM ET.

Get a free alert before 12:00 so you can act on your plan, and see the high-impact news events that move forex for how the BoE fits among them.

Bank Rate in context: the BoE, the Fed and the ECB

The pound rarely moves on the Bank of England alone. What matters for GBP/USD is the gap between UK and US interest rates, and for EUR/GBP the gap between UK and euro-area rates. A BoE hold can still lift sterling if the Federal Reserve has just signalled cuts, and a BoE cut can leave the pound flat if the European Central Bank cut a few weeks earlier. Reading the decision against the other two central banks tells you far more than the decision on its own.

The calendars help here. The Fed decides on a Wednesday evening (UK time), the BoE often on the following Thursday at noon, and the ECB on its own Thursday schedule. When two decisions fall in the same week, the second one is judged against the first, and the cross pairs — EUR/GBP and GBP/JPY — can move more than GBP/USD.

UK data in the weeks before each meeting shapes the vote: CPI inflation (published mid-month, at 7:00 AM UK), wage growth in the labour-market report, and services inflation, which the MPC has repeatedly named as the measure it watches most. When those surprise, expectations for the next MPC vote shift immediately — and the countdown above tells you how long until they are tested.

Backtest BoE decisions first

FxBacktest replays real GBP/USD, EUR/GBP and GBP/JPY charts bar by bar with the economic calendar on the chart, so you can step through past Bank of England decisions and test your plan — flat into noon, trade the vote surprise, or wait for the press conference — with spread and commission included, long before the next MPC meeting.