BoE Chief Economist Pill says MPC is not edging towards a hike

• Says Deputy Governor Lombardelli clarified the decision to hold rates unchanged this time was not a difficult one.

Pushback of this kind, where a senior MPC voice explicitly rules out the direction the market has been speculating on, has historically been aimed at re-anchoring the short end of the gilt curve rather than signalling fresh information about the committee's internal debate. The distinction worth drawing is between killing a hike narrative and endorsing cuts: officials in this position have tended to find the former cheap and the latter costly, so the comment typically caps the front end without implying anything about the easing path. The accompanying remark that holding was not a difficult decision fits the established pattern of post-meeting communications smoothing a divided or finely balanced vote into a steadier public picture. The tell in comparable episodes has been whether other MPC members echo the same formulation in the following days, since coordinated language from the Bank has tended to stick to pricing where lone comments have faded. Attention then falls on the wage and services inflation prints that have historically driven the hawkish tail the comment is trying to suppress. As verbal guidance rather than a decision, the signal is directional only.