MPC almost unanimous over rate freeze
The Bank of England's monetary policy committee voted 8-1 to keep interest rates at 5.5 per cent at January's meeting. According to the minutes of the meeting, only David Blanchflower voted against the move citing the need to address the fears of retailers over diminishing sales. The bank will meet again to decide rates on February 7th, with analysts anticipating that the mpc will cut rates in the face of subsequent fears over the state of the economy. Philip Shaw, chief economist at Investec, told Reuters: "We stand by our view that rates will come down again next month but barring a sudden deterioration in the growth outlook the Monetary Policy Committee is unlikely to ease aggressively. "The fact that GDP growth in the fourth quarter held up relatively well supports that view."News of the minutes of the meeting come as Mervyn King this week implied that the mpc remains committed to keeping inflation at two per cent and that a degree of market turbulence may be inevitable in the short term.
Share this..
Related stories
Home repossessions fall to eight year low
12/02/2015 The number of homes repossessed by lenders in the UK has fallen to an eight year low, according to The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML). The CML has reported that repossessions have fallen by 26% to 21,000 in the last year. Mortgage arrears have also fallen to their lowest rate since 2006. The improvements are thought to be because of the rising levels of employment in the UK a...
Read MoreAlistair Darling's growth forecast smashed to pieces
Today's news that the UK economy fell by a shocking 0.4% in the third quarter of 2009, against analysts expectations of a rise of 0.2%, has blown Alistair Darling's budget forecasts to pieces. He had originally suggested that the UK economy would move out of recession in the second half of 2009 yet we are now moving towards the latter part of 2009 and many analysts are now concerned that the UK co...
Read MoreCommodities start to feel the pinch of the worldwide slowdown
News that Europe's second-largest steelmaker Corus is set to extend steel production cuts beyond the original date of December has caused some consternation in the commodities market. The company has confirmed plans to reduce production by around 30% during the next two quarters and then reassess the situation in the early part of 2009.
Companies such as Corus have been hit hard by...
UK petrol prices under scrutiny
The AA has undertaken a detailed review of petrol prices in UK and highlighted the fact, that for the first time ever, even the Highlands and Islands of Scotland are cheaper than many motorway service stations up and down the UK. While the average price of petrol is around £1.07 litre, with diesel just over £1.07 a litre, rising to just under £1.11 a litre in the Highlands and Islands, some mot...
Read MoreOverdraft charge ruling due today
The UK Supreme Court is set to announce its decision on the UK overdraft charge saga with indications that it will rule in favour of the Office of Fair Trading (OFT). This will give the OFT the right to rule on whether various overdraft charges were in fact fair and whether customers should be compensated by UK banks. However, this may not be the end of the saga! There is speculation that the U...
Read More