The Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England has voted to hold interest rates at 5.25%, as expected. Sitting since September last year, they will remain for yet another month at their highest level since 2008, after 14 consecutive hikes. Pressure is mounting to cut rates with inflation at its lowest level in two years…

Last time there was a three-way split with two votes for an increase. This month an 8-1 majority voted to leave interest rates on hold – the one dissenter voted for a 0.25% cut. An increasingly dovish mood…

Free market economist Julian Jessop makes clear that time is running out to cut rates: “With plenty of evidence that the labour market is cooling, and inflation expectations are dropping, fears of a ‘wage-price spiral’ should fade too. By far the bigger risk is that having been too slow to act when inflation was taking off, the Bank of England will now be even slower to respond on the way down.“ Tories are looking to Andrew Bailey to cut rates and get growth up…

Those who deride Tories for pointing out the failures of the economic establishment, look no further. The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) has today published its review of the economy and, surprise suprise, told Hunt not to go for tax cuts in the budget. More interestingly, their economist Ben Caswell has blamed the Bank of England for pushing the UK into recession at the end of last year. The BoE’s refusal to provide “a little bit of forward guidance” on when interest rates might be cut didn’t allow “the market to price in rate cuts much more efficiently“. Unlike the Federal Reserve and European Central Bank, which are less tight-lipped…

This all comes as Bank of England rate-setter Swati Dhingra publicly calls for interest rate cuts to prevent a damaging undershoot on inflation. The Bank is putting itself in the firing line for more economic doldrums…

The Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England has voted to hold interest rates at 5.25%, as expected. Sitting since September last year, they will remain for another month at their highest level since 2008 after 14 consecutive hikes. Not surprising with January’s small tax-induced uptick in inflation…

An interesting split in the votes: 6 voted to keep the same, 2 voted for a hike, and one voted for a cut. The first three-way split since 2008…

The Institute of Economic Affairs’ Shadow Monetary Policy Committee is again recommending a rate cut to 5% as “the current inflation rate is well below what the official November forecasts suggested it would be at this point.” An undershoot would put a hold on the economic bounceback Sunak is desperately hoping for…

The Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England has voted 6-3 to hold interest rates at 5.25%, as expected. They will remain for another month at their highest level since 2008 after 14 consecutive hikes. No surprises – all speculation has been over developments in the New Year…

Federal Reserve officials are expecting a 0.75% cut next year while traders have priced in a 1% cut from the BoE for 2024. Rates need to fall soon to have any hope of avoiding an undershoot on inflation…

New data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows UK wage growth slowed in the three months to December to 7.3%, down from record highs of 7.8% in September. Public sector wage growth is at some of the highest levels since records began at 6.9%. That should suffice to convince the Bank of England to hold rates at 5.25% on Thursday…

Unemployment is unchanged still at lows of 4.2%, as is the employment rate at 75.7%. Vacancies dropped again, now for the seventeenth consecutive month. The rate of economic inactivity fell to 20.9% – one-in-five of the potential workforce…

The Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England has voted 6-3 to hold interest rates at 5.25%. They will remain at their highest level since 2008 after 14 consecutive hikes. As expected – the market had this outcome at 93%…

The Institute of Economic Affairs’ own Shadow Monetary Policy Committee is warning of an undershoot on inflation and wants rates cut to 5% – they say that keeping the ratchet up on rates will increase the risk of deflation and an economic slowdown. A crash in mortgage lending and spiralling insolvencies do not a healthy economy make…