The Bank of England is expected to raise interest rates on Thursday after a closely watched survey showed growth across the UK’s services sector leapt last month to an eight-month high, bolstered by spending on artificial intelligence.

S&P Global’s survey of the services sector in October showed businesses regained much of the momentum they lost after the start of the Iran war, but also felt the impact of a renewed spurt of input price inflation, which accelerated to a five-month high.

Officials at the Bank have become concerned about inflation after the consumer prices index (CPI) rose from 3.1% in August to 3.5% in September .

While the nine-member monetary policy committee (MPC), which sets interest rates, has been split in recent months , a majority is expected to vote on Thursday for 0.25 percentage point increase to 4%.

Tim Moore, the economics director at S&P Global Market Intelligence, said a survey of the manufacturing sector earlier this week also showed businesses facing strong price…