The Bank of England paused its campaign of anti-inflation interest rate hikes Thursday, mirroring the Federal Reserve’s decision to leave the U.S. benchmark interest rate untouched at a 22-year high.

The U.K. central bank, reacting to signs that inflation in Britain is on a downward path, left its key bank rate unchanged at 5.25%, its highest since 2007. It was a surprising and close decision, with policymakers voting 5-4 in favor of leaving the rate steady rather than hiking again, in contrast to the Fed’s unanimous vote, which was a foregone conclusion.

Just like its American counterpart, the Bank of England is attempting to restrain high inflation that took hold in 2021 by raising borrowing costs and slowing the economy. Consumer prices in the U.K. increased 6.7% over the 12 months as of August, down from the peak of 11.1% last October. By contrast, the U.S. annual inflation rate has 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:fallen to 3.7% as of August from its peak of 9.1% in June 2022.

The bank is likely done raising rates, James Smith, developed markets economist at ING, said in a commentary. However, he said, further rate hikes are still possible if there’s a setback in the fight against inflation, especially given the “pause” faction prevailed by such a narrow margin in the vote.

“That degree of division is actually pretty unusual and shows just how close a call this meeting was,” he wrote.

One reason the bank will likely be satisfied with leaving the rate steady: the previous rate hikes will likely hit British homeowners harder in the coming months, Smith said. That’s because mortgages in the U.K. typically only have five-year fixed rates, rather than the 30-year fixed rate mortgage that prevails on the other side of the Atlantic. That means many British mortgage holders will soon face higher monthly payments.