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Here's how they voted:

• Six members (Andrew Bailey, Sarah Breeden, Megan Greene, Clare Lombardelli, Catherine L Mann and Huw Pill) voted in favour of the proposition.

• Three members (Swati Dhingra, Dave Ramsden and Alan Taylor) voted against the proposition, preferring to reduce the bank rate by 0.25 percentage points, to 4.5%.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer said:

Breaking: Bank of England keeps interest rate at 4.75% amid inflation fears

The base rate will remain the same for the last central bank meeting of the year.

Traders are now betting that the Bank of England will lower interest rates just twice next year, taking the base rate from 4.75% to 4.25% by the end of 2025.

The pound gained ground against the US dollar in early European trading on Wednesday, rising 0.4% to $1.2622. The uptick came as the currency rebounded from steep losses incurred late the previous day, following remarks from US Federal Reserve officials that sent the dollar surging. The Fed's decision to remove two expected rate cuts from next year's projections triggered the dollar's climb.

The Fed's move, which included a 25-basis-point interest rate hike, also saw policymakers adjust their 2024 rate expectations. They now predict only a 50-bp reduction in borrowing costs next year — half the amount originally forecast in September. The changes fuelled an uptick in US government bond yields, which in turn made the dollar more attractive to investors.

"The market was blindsided by the surprising hawkishness," said Steve Englander, head of global FX research at Standard Chartered.

"The market impact was particularly sharp because most of the market expected a really low volatility (Fed meeting)."

As traders recalibrated following the Fed's update, attention in the UK now turns to the Bank of England (BoE). The central bank is expected to keep interest rates unchanged at 4.75% this Thursday, as persistent inflation continues to limit its policy options, even amid signs of a slowing economy.

Read more on Yahoo Finance UK

Bitcoin (BTC-USD) fell on Wednesday after Jerome Powell said that the Fed was not able to hold the cryptocurrency, which was something the central bank was not seeking to change.

"We're not allowed to own bitcoin," Powell said in a press conference following the Fed's interest rate decision.

As for the legal issues of holding bitcoin, Powell said that this was the "kind of thing for Congress to consider, but we are not looking for a law change at the Fed", according to Reuters.

Bitcoin had fallen back to $101,815 on Thursday morning, having topped $108,000 on Tuesday. Cryptocurrency exchange platform Coinbase, which is consider a proxy stock for the digital tokens, closed Wednesday's session 10% in the red.

Powell's comments come ahead of president-elect Donald Trump's return to the White House in January, after having won the US election last month. Trump said in his election campaign that he planned to make the US the global capital for cryptocurrency and he'd create a national stockpile of bitcoin.

Water companies Severn Trent and United Utilities (UU.L) were the top risers in the FTSE 100 (^FTSE) on Thursday morning, up nearly 2% and 1% respectively.

This came after the UK water industry regulator Ofwat announced that it had approved a £104bn ($131bn) upgrade to accelerate delivery of cleaner rivers and seas.

However, to help fund these upgrades, it said that the average water bill would rise by 20% to £86 next year, though there would be smaller percentage increases in the following four years.

Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said: "This news may not trigger a flood of new buyers for water company shares given a lot of the increase in bills will go towards investing in creaking infrastructure.

"After all, with bills going up but problems around sewage spills and water outages continuing at current levels, some will feel this doesn’t appear a sustainable state of affairs."

Severn Trent said that it had been given the green light for a £15bn investment programme to improve its services and boost river health.

Pedro Goncalves writes:

Gold prices dipped on Thursday morning, extending the losses from a one-month low reading on Wednesday, following the Fed's decision to lower interest rates as anticipated. However, the central bank also indicated it would slow the pace of future rate cuts, a move that helped strengthen the dollar and push up bond yields.

The spot gold price lost 1.2%, trading at $2,617.33, while gold futures fell 0.9% to trade at $2,628.60.

"Markets are climbing a wall of worry into the close as Powell nods to a period of slower rate cuts predicated on further progress in inflation. Core PCE data later this week now takes on more importance," said Tai Wong, an independent metals trader.

Fed chair Powell emphasised that further reductions in borrowing costs would depend on continued progress in reducing inflation, which remains stubbornly high.

"The big question over here is that because the Fed says they will still be data-dependent and if Trump's policy starts to actually see inflation, a big risk would be that the Fed may not cut rates next year at all," said Kelvin Wong, OANDA's senior market analyst for Asia Pacific.

Market expectations now point to the Fed keeping rates unchanged at its January meeting.

Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said:

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has set out plans to simplify the information supplied to investors to boost confidence and drive investment.

“High quality product information will give consumers the confidence to invest; increased participation in this market will not only benefit consumers but will also provide capital to drive the economy and boost growth," said Simon Walls, interim executive director of markets.

Under the current rules, introduced across Europe when the UK was in the EU, people buying investments like investment funds are supplied with standardised documents covering prescribed information.

In practice, these documents were often complex, unclear and could miss important points. This could put people off investing or lead them to make less informed decisions.

The FCA has proposed replacing this with a simpler and flexible system which is tailored to the UK. Firms will be given more choice about how, what and when they communicate.

The FCA has also set out some detailed requirements where it is really necessary to ensure consistency and comparability across the market to help consumers.

Under the proposals, new product information requirements would help consumers understand the products they are buying while giving firms flexibility to innovate.

Regulator Ofwat said on Thursday that water bills are set to rise an average of £31 per household over the next five years — an increase that kicks in in April.

The jump is above the £19 the regulator had proposed earlier this year but lower than what water companies requested.

Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Steve Reed, said:

US stocks look set to stage a small recovery when markets open later on.

From our US team:

Stocks were clobbered Wednesday after the Federal Reserve, despite slashing interest rates by 25 basis points, signalled it would cut fewer times next year than previously projected.

All three major indices reversed gains following the decision to end with steep losses. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) was down about 2.6%, or over 1,000 points, clinching its 10th straight down session, the longest losing streak since 1974. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 (^GSPC) fell roughly 3%, and tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) slid more than 3.5%.

Ten Fed officials estimated two interest rate cuts next year, fewer than four seen in September, as officials marked up their projections for core inflation and growth next year, while lowering their forecast for unemployment in 2025.

"The slower pace of cuts for next year really reflects both the higher inflation readings we had this year and the expectation inflation will be higher," Fed Chair Jerome Powell said. He added later that as long as the economy and labor market remain "solid," "we can be cautious as we consider further cuts."

Last night we saw the Federal Reserve cut rates in a 'close' vote by the US central bank's committee. The Bank of England's interest rate decision is due to drop at noon (more on that later).

Later on we'll also get a US GDP reading and results from the likes of BlackBerry (BB) and FedEx (FDX).

Let's get to it.