The Committee also voted unanimously to maintain the stock of UK Government bond purchases, financed by the issuance of central bank reserves, at £435 billion.
A statement read: “The MPC judges that demand and potential supply are currently broadly in balance.
“The weaker near-term outlook is likely to lead to a small margin of slack opening up this year.
“Thereafter, demand growth exceeds the subdued pace of supply growth and excess demand builds over the second half of the forecast period. As a result, domestic inflationary pressures firm, as the upward pressure on inflation of sterling’s past depreciation wanes.
“Under the assumptions that condition the February Report, inflation settles at a rate a little above the target.
“The Committee judges that, were the economy to develop broadly in line with its Inflation Report projections, an ongoing tightening of monetary policy over the forecast period, at a gradual pace and to a limited extent, would be appropriate to return inflation sustainably to the 2% target at a conventional horizon.”