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mpc: 2 Domestic short-term market interest rates had increased over the month, partly in response to the strength of economic activity indicators. At the time of the Committee's meeting, sterling money market instruments implied an expectation of a 25 basis point rise in the Bank of England's repo rate by the start of 2007; the markets also attached a reasonably firm chance to a further 25 basis point tightening by the end of 2007. This represented a substantial change from the position at the time of the February Inflation Report, when the short-term interest rate curve had been broadly flat. In contrast, the mean expectation from the latest Reuters poll of private sector economists was for the official rate to remain unchanged at 4½% through 2006 and 2007.