LONDON, Aug 1 Reuters The Bank of England says it will act forcefully if needed to stop the surge in inflation from turning into a longterm problem, meaning it could deliver a rare halfpercentage point interest rate rise as soon as this week.

Here are some of the things that Governor Andrew Bailey and his colleagues will be looking as they assess the persistence of inflation pressures ahead of their next scheduled monetary policy announcement at 1100 GMT on Thursday.

Measures of inflation expectations and prices charged by companies have slowed recently but core pay has risen.

BoE39;s ratesetters might feel that they should raise rates by 50 basis points after other central banks pushed up borrowing costs sharply in recent weeks, despite the risk of an economic slowdown or a recession.

INFLATION EXPECTATIONS

Britain39;s main inflation measure hit a 40year high of 9.4 in June, prompting some economists to push up their forecast for inflation39;s peak to 12. But central banks typically worry just as much about expectations for future inflation.

The BoE might take some comfort from a recent drop in how much consumers think prices will rise in the years ahead.

A survey by U.S. bank Citi and pollsters YouGov published on Monday showed expectations among the public for inflation in five to 10 years the measure the BoE looks at most fell in July for the third time in four months, although at 3.8 it remained high by historical standards.

Another survey by Bank of…