Pressure is mounting on the Bank of England for the first interest rate cut of the post-pandemic era.  But City experts are betting that the wait for action in Threadneedle Street will continue this week – at least for now. Millions of mortgage holders, house hunters, borrowers and savers will be watching closely, on Thursday at noon, when the next interest rate announcement is due. The BOE’s official base rate has been at a 15-year high of 5.25% since last August, when its Monetary Policy Committee ended a run of 14 consecutive hikes in its fight against runaway inflation. Now the consumer price index is heading towards the BOE’s 2% target – it fell to 3.2% in March – the days of double-digit rises seen in the aftermath of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine are moving further back. And with economy struggling to grow, calls for a cut have been getting louder. But at the same time, there have been signs of stubbornly sticky aspects to inflation, not least in pay data. That has led the BOE to repeat its signals that its base rate will stay higher for longer. In turn, City traders have pared back their bets on the...