LONDON, Aug 1 Reuters The British public39;s expectations for inflation fell again in July, a survey showed on Monday, potentially adding to the case for the Bank of England BoE to increase interest rates by only a quarter percentage point later this week.

U.S. bank Citi and pollsters YouGov said expectations for inflation in five to 10 years39; time dropped to 3.8 in July from 4.0 in June, the third fall in the last four months.

Inflation expectations for 12 months39; time edged down to 6.0 from 6.1, the survey showed.

The BoE39;s Monetary Policy Committee MPC, which has raised interest rates steadily since December to fight an inflation rate now above 9, has said it is ready to act forcefully if needed to stop the recent price surge from becoming embedded.

That has raised the prospect of the first half percentagepoint BoE rate hike since 1995 as soon as Thursday, after its August policy meeting.

For the MPC, these data alongside recent developments are likely to mean concerns surrounding mediumterm inflation expectations remain, Benjamin Nabarro, an economist with Citi, said in a note to clients.

However, we see little in today39;s data that should provide a further impetus for an outsized hike this week.

Writing by William Schomberg; Editing by Kylie MacLellan and Christopher Cushing

Source Reuters