The Bank of England was set to hold its interest rate steady on Thursday despite slowing UK inflation, with higher price risks and Britain's looming election preventing a cut, according to analysts. Ahead of the 1100 GMT announcement, the Swiss National Bank unveiled a second straight interest-rate cut, after becoming in March the first Western central bank to slash borrowing costs that had been raised to battle inflation. Norway froze rates Thursday. The BoE was widely forecast to keep its cost of borrowing at 5.25 percent, a 16-year high, following a regular monetary policy meeting. While UK inflation slowed in May ... (full story)