The Bank of England has admitted inflation is failing to fall as fast as it had hoped, according to the minutes of the last Monetary Policy Committee.

The meeting, held on 4-5 April, showed the Committee was concerned about the slow fall of inflation.

At the time of the meeting, CPI inflation had fallen from 3.6 per cent in January to 3.4 per cent in February.

This was a smaller decline than the Committee had previously forecast.

In its February Inflation Report it had forecast for inflation to be at two per cent by the final quarter of 2012.

The report reads: “Some statistical projections were pointing to a path for CPI inflation in the coming months higher than would be consistent with the Committee’s central path from the February Inflation Report projections.

“But, as with all forecasts, there was a large margin of error around them and they did not capture all the forces acting on prices.”

The comments are particularly significant as the most recent inflation reports from the Office for National Statistics show inflation has since increased to 3.5 per cent.

Increases in duties announced in the Budget in March are expected to add a further 0.1 per cent to the next figure.

The Committee now believes inflation will remain above two per cent into the medium term.

The Committee were unanimous about holding interest rates at 0.5 per cent while only one member, David Miles, was against maintaining the asset purchase programme at £325bn.

Mr Miles was in favour of an increase to the size of the programme by £25bn.