LONDON, June 22 Reuters The Bank of England raised interest rates by a biggerthanexpected half a percentage point on Thursday after it said there had been significant news suggesting British inflation would take longer to fall.

The BoE39;s Monetary Policy Committee MPC voted 72 to raise its main interest rate to 5 from 4.5, its highest since 2008 and its largest rate increase since February, following stickier inflation and wage growth since its policymakers met last in May.

There has been significant upside news in recent data that indicates more persistence in the inflation process, the MPC said.

Secondround effects in domestic price and wage developments generated by external cost shocks are likely to take longer to unwind than they did to emerge, it added.

Economists polled by Reuters had expected a move to 4.75, although financial markets earlier on Thursday had seen a nearly 50 chance of a rise to 5, following higherthanexpected inflation data released on Wednesday.

BoE policymakers had given little indication that a halfpoint rate increase was under consideration in the runup to Thursday39;s announcement.

MPC members Silvana Tenreyro and Swati Dhingra opposed the rate rise as they have all others this year saying that much of the impact of past tightening had yet to be felt, and forwardlooking indicators pointed to steep falls in inflation and wage growth ahead.

Governor Andrew Bailey, in a regular letter to British finance minister Jeremy Hunt alongside…