Here comes the Bank of England ...

It's Bank of England day.

This is the day when the bank releases both the minutes of its Monetary Policy Committee, and its latest interest rate decision.

The bank will publish its decisions at midday UK time (7:00 a.m. ET) against a background of slightly better than expected UK inflation, but also a stark warning on the UK economy from the IMF.

The BoE will more than likely hold rates at 0.5% for the 85th consecutive month. Last month, the MPC voted unanimously, 9-0, to hold rates.

While the interest rate decision is crucial, markets will be more interested in analyzing the tone of the bank's minutes, particularly on inflation, where people will be looking for clues on when a rate rise, or even cut, might happen.

This month, there are conflicting opinions on whether the MPC will become more hawkish, or more dovish in its tone. Pantheon Macroeconomics argues that: "At today's MPC meeting, the centre of gravity of the policy debate is likely to shift towards the merits of raising interest rates, rather than cutting them."

That's because in March, consumer price inflation in the UK grew from 0.3% to 0.5%, above the MPC's February forecast of 0.4% growth. Pantheon says that this growth is "challenging the consensus view in the markets that the MPC will leave interest rates on hold until the end of the decade."

However, on Thursday morning, Sky News economics editor Ed Conway suggested that some MPC members could actually be leaning towards a cut in rates. "I understand at least two members of the MPC are strongly considering a vote for a cut in interest rates" Conway tweeted.

In the past, governor Mark Carney has hinted that 2016 could be the year in which the BoE raises rates for the first time since the financial crisis. But that looks pretty much impossible right now, and the vast majority of analysts now expect the BoE's next hike to come towards the end of the decade. Some are even arguing that a cut will come before a hike.

For the moment, the BoE is indicating that three big factors - a persistently low oil price, a slowdown in emerging market economies, and weak wage growth - are holding inflation back, and keeping rates low.