Bank of England to make interest rates announcement today

Bank of England to make interest rates announcement today

The Bank of England will announce its review of the base rate later this week.

The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) will meet this morning in order to decide whether or not it should raise interest rates. Previously, the Bank decided to keep interest rates unchanged at 5.25%.

The same decision was also made in September, which finally saw a break in the trend of interest rates rising. The central bank had hiked interest rates at 14 consecutive meetings until they peaked at 5.25%.

The indications appear to suggest that the BoE will hold the interest rates at a 15-year high of 5.25% today.

Central banks on both sides of the Atlantic have indicated that further hikes in the cost of borrowing are unlikely in the coming months as inflation eases, which explains why the US Fed held interest rates yesterday, and BoE is expected to do the same.

Financial markets have actually priced in an almost 100% chance of a hold, according to the London Stock Exchange.

Julien Lafargue, from Barclays Private Bank, said: “Although the vote will likely still be split, we expect the Bank of England to maintain [rates] at 5.25%.

“In our view, the Monetary Policy Committee will also likely reinforce its message that the current monetary policy stance is restrictive but that, with risks to inflationary pressures being tilted to the upside, it’s too early to think about interest rate cuts.”

He added that markets had priced in an expectation that BoE would start cutting rates around the middle of next year.