The Bank of England Governor has hinted that it could soon be done increasing the interest rate.
Andrew Bailey said yesterday that more rises may not be needed to control inflation - comments that forced investors to rethink bets on further sharp hikes this year.
The governor cautioned against suggestions that policymakers "will inevitably need to do more" to keep a lid on price rises.
Markets had been betting that rates would rise to 4.75% this year, but have now cut back positions.
Investors now expect interest rates to peak at 4.5% in late spring.
Mr Bailey said: "I would caution against suggesting either that we are done with increasing the bank rate, or that we will inevitably need to do more. Some further increase in bank rate may turn out to be appropriate, but nothing is decided."
Rate now 4%
The nine members of the monetary police committee signalled last month that the rate was close to peaking after increases took the benchmark borrowing rate from 0.1% to 4%.
Meanwhile, a powerful parliamentary committee chided the chiefs of Britain’s biggest banks for failing to pass on the benefits of higher interest rates to savers.
The Treasury Select Committee wrote a series of letters to the heads of Lloyds, HSBC, NatWest and Barclays asking why some savings rates are less than a quarter of the bank rate.
Harriett Baldwin, the chair of the cross-party Treasury Select Committee, said: "It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that our biggest banks are taking advantage of their most loyal customers to increase profits and CEO pay."
All four of Britain's largest banks offer rates of less than 1% on their easy-access savings accounts. The rate for Barclays’ everyday saver account is just 0.55%.
Last month, the UK’s Big Four lenders all reported rises in their net interest margins, which measures the difference between what a bank pays to savers and what it receives from borrowers.
Higher rates are available
But all the banks said yesterday that higher rates were offered on non-everyday savings accounts.
NatWest said it offered returns of up to 6% on its "digital regular saver" account, while HSBC, Lloyds and Barclays said they offered rates of around 5% on similar accounts.
All said they had raised rates on their savings accounts several times over the past year.
FTSE 100
The UK's top share index, the FTSE 100, was down 26 points at 7,888 shortly after opening this morning, following yesterday's 38-point gain.
Brent crude futures slipped 0.37% to $84 a barrel.
Companies reporting today
- Full-year results: Anheuser-Busch Inbev, Coats Group, Hunting, ITV, London Stock Exchange Group, National Express Group, Schroders.