BoE’s Bailey: UK Inflation Above Target Remains ‘Extremely Frustrating’

Bailey's frustration is less about the headline rate than about the missing evidence he needs to act. The notable signal is that second-round effects look modest so far, with firms cutting costs rather than passing them through — that argues against an entrenched wage-price spiral, but Bailey explicitly declines to treat the early read as conclusive. For rates-sensitive sectors, including crypto and tokenized real-world assets that trade against the UK rate path, the open question is whether that cost-cutting behaviour persists as the labour market and consumer demand evolve.