By Julia Kollewe

LONDON (MktNews) - The Bank of England's February Inflation Report will most probably show a softer profile for RPIX than that published in November but is still unlikely to signal that the central bank will cut interest rates within the next couple of months, analysts said Tuesday.

Last week the BOE cut the official repo rate by a quarter-point to 5.75% without any accompanying statement and analysts are now looking to the February report, which will be published at 10:30 GMT, to see if further rate cuts are around the corner.

Economists predicted that RPIX would still be forecast reaching 2.5% in two years time in the central projection but the new report will feature a softer profile over the next two years as a result of inflation so far turning out weaker-than-expected and the slowdown in the global economy.

"The key downward influence on the Bank's inflation forecast since the last report - and hence the main reason for Thursday's rate cut - was simply the fact that recorded inflation has continued to come in much lower than the Bank has expected," said Jonathan Loynes, UK economist at CapitalEconomics.

In January, RPIX inflation dropped to 1.8%, the lowest annual rate since comparable records began in 1976.

But economists said the report is unlikely to give a green light to rate cuts in the next couple of months as some members of the Monetary Policy Committee are still likely to be worried about the possibility of further weakening in sterling and that domestic demand has still shown no signs of slowing significantly.

Danny Gabay, UK economist at JP Morgan Chase and Co., said the new inflation profile will be about 0.3-0.5pp lower than in November with the risks "heavily skewed to the downside in the near-term but possibly towards the upside at the end of the horizon".

On the whole, analysts said that the risks to the inflation profile are still fairly evenly balanced and the likely differences among members of the committee will probably mean that interest rates are left on hold until later in the second quarter.