The fate of an early summer interest rate cut may be defined this week, by hotly anticipated inflation data that will reveal how close the rate of rising prices is near to the Bank of England’s official target. Mortgage holders, house hunters, City experts and millions of other borrowers and savers are waiting for clues on the timing of the first rate cut of the post-Covid era. The official benchmark cost of borrowing has been on hold at a 15-year high of 5.25% since August last year. The BOE’s 14-meeting run of consecutive hikes which took it there was designed to tame double-digit inflation which peaked over at 11% in October 2022, fuelled by the the spike in energy prices caused when Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine. This week, the consumer price index (CPI) is expected to fall to the brink of the BOE’s official 2% target, with forecasts that it will tumble to 2.1% for April on an annual basis, down from 3.2% in March. That would add to pressure on the Monetary Policy Committee in Threadneedle Street, chaired by BOE governor Andrew Bailey, to cut rates. His outgoing deputy for monetary policy, Ben Broadbent, said today that a cut...