Posts with tag: base rate

Bank of England Leaves Base Rate at Record Low 0.25%

Published On: September 16, 2016 at 9:17 am

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Yesterday, the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) decided to leave the base rate at the record low level of 0.25%, in line with analysts’ forecasts.

Bank of England Leaves Base Rate at Record Low 0.25%

Bank of England Leaves Base Rate at Record Low 0.25%

However, the MPC did announce that the rate could be cut again further in the year.

Last month, the Bank cut the base rate for the first time since 2009 and approved another £170 billion of monetary stimulus to stop the economy falling back into recession, following the UK’s vote to leave the EU.

However, the Bank of England did hint that a rate cut could come later this year, in order to support a weakening economy.

In the minutes of its latest MPC meeting, the Bank said: “A majority of members expected to support a further cut in bank rate to its effective lower bound at one of the MPC’s forthcoming meetings during the course of the year.”

The MPC also acknowledged that in recent weeks, economic data has been stronger than expected since August’s rate cut.

The Bank’s announcement arrives after recent figures suggest that the economy has so far held up well in the wake of the EU referendum.

Additionally, the founder and CEO of eMoov, Russell Quirk, reports that the property market has continued to strengthen following the Brexit vote.

He comments on the Bank’s decision to leave the base rate at 0.25%: “Today’s decision to leave interest rates frozen at 0.25% will no doubt continue to strengthen an already resilient post-Brexit UK property market. With property prices across the UK continuing their upward trend since the decision to leave the EU, it will come as welcome news for those looking to get a foot on the ladder in an already inflated market, due to the availability of tantalising mortgage products currently on the market.

“It should act as further reassurance to UK buyers and sellers that the property market is in good health and will, no doubt, help to boost this positive sentiment. It will be interesting to see if an increase does come in November, although by that time, any shackles of uncertainty should be well and truly shaken off.”

What do you think of the Bank’s decision?

UK Interest Rates May Not Rise Until 2020, Believe Analysts

Published On: February 10, 2016 at 12:24 pm

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Categories: Finance News

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Bank of England

Insecurity in global markets and a weakening US economy will force the Bank of England (BoE) to delay interest rate rises until at least 2020, according to leading industry analysts.

The Economist Intelligence Unit’s (EIU) prediction adds at least three years to the BoE’s timeline for the first increase from the historically low rate of 0.5%.

The forecast will be welcome news for mortgage borrowers, but will disappoint savers.

UK Interest Rates May Not Rise Until 2020, Believe Analysts

UK Interest Rates May Not Rise Until 2020, Believe Analysts

Most analysts expect the first rise in the base rate for almost seven years to arrive at the end of this year or in early 2017.

The Governor of the BoE, Mark Carney, announced in January that the UK faced “a powerful set of forces” that prevented policymakers from increasing rates.

However, in his quarterly inflation report briefing, Carney said that interest rates were “more likely than not” to go up over the next two years1.

Two analysts at the EIU, Danielle Haralambous and Aengus Collins, believe Carney’s announcement is at odds with the downbeat evaluation in the inflation report.

They said: “We now expect record low interest rates to remain in place in the UK for at least the next four years.”

In the past week, the BoE has downgraded the UK’s expected GDP growth for 2016, and indicated that inflation will remain low this year and in 2017.

The EIU analysts found that downward adjustments to official growth expectations reveal that the loss of momentum last year was sharper than anticipated.

They also argued that the UK suffers from “unresolved structural weaknesses” that would prevent wages from rising and from putting pressure on prices.

They reported: “The vulnerability of the UK recovery, combined with the more decisively dovish tone at the BoE, has led to a significant change in our call on monetary policy. We no longer expect tightening for the next four years at least.”

The decision to maintain low rates will remain, despite a build up in inflationary pressures, they added.

The analysts concluded: “The BoE is likely to delay policy tightening in 2019, largely on the basis of our forecasts that the US will experience a downturn in 2019, and rising levels of indebtedness in China will have become a greater source of risk by the end of our forecast period. Our view is that the next increase in interest rates will come in mid-2020.”1 

If rates do not rise until 2020, how will your financial position change?

1 http://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/feb/09/global-economic-woes-delay-uk-interest-rate-rise-2020-bank-england