Stocks will weaken as the decline in gold prices deepens

Good morning and welcome back to AM City live blog.

There is one big event the City is looking forward to this week, but all signs point to no surprises.

On Thursday, the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee will meet for the first time this year and decide whether to cut interest rates.

It would be the first decision since the Christmas rate cut, which brought rates down to 3.75 percent.

World Bank Governor Andrew Bailey said inflation had “surpassed its recent peak” paving the way for a fourth cut this year, although he warned future cuts would likely be “a closer call”.

Since then, figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) in January showed the main measure of price growth – consumer price index inflation, had risen slightly to 3.4 per cent in December.

This figure exceeded the expectations of economists surveyed by Bloomberg who estimated the figure at 3.3 percent.

The ONS said higher tobacco prices and recently introduced excise increases helped inflation rise for the first time in five months.

What is more worrying is that food price inflation reached 4.5 percent compared to 4.2 percent in the previous month. The move is being closely watched by Bank of England rate setters as food costs can weigh heavily on inflation expectations.

Economists across the city are predicting a fall in prices – but could there be a change as early as this year?

We’ll bring you the latest news and analysis this morning as well as what’s coming up this week.

Meanwhile, here are some of our top stories from the weekend: