Rate-setting committee also points to mounting global uncertainty as it pauses its cycle of reductions

• Analysis: Bank of England in no hurry on interest rates, but cuts will come
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The Bank of England has said UK businesses are freezing their hiring plans in response to Rachel Reeves’s tax increases and to mounting global uncertainty as it kept interest rates on hold at 4.5%.

Before the chancellor’s spring statement on Wednesday, the bank’s monetary policy committee (MPC) voted by eight to one to pause its cycle of rate cuts after three reductions in the past year.