One of the Bank of England’s jobs since it was cut free from the meddling interference of politicians is to keep inflation at a target of 2 percent. News in the BoE’s own quarterly inflation report said that the rate could move as high as 2.7 percent without a further increase in the rate...
Read more »
Kicking off the global trend this week, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) increased rates to 6 percent. Concern has been raised that Australia could be pushed into a recession as local banks followed the increase, with Westpac announcing an immediate increase to its standard variable rate to household borrowers of 7.8 percent. Worse...
Read more »
Like most in the financial markets, the building societies were expecting rates to stay put. However, this afternoon the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Review Committee (MPC) announced a surprise increase in UK interest rates, setting the new rate up 0.5 percent to 4.75 percent. Today’s rise is likely to mean trouble for many...
Read more »
The Bank of England’s monetary policy review committee managed to pull a rabbit out of the hat this afternoon. In a move that most had discounted, the MPC announced at noon that for the first time in eleven months it would increase interest rates in the UK to 4.75 percent. Whilst the MPC has...
Read more »
History tells us that the housing market cycle begins in London. Last year, while London and the South East saw only modest prices rises, areas such as the North East enjoyed a boom – classic final throws of a bull run. Now, it’s gone the other way. Is it possible, that this time, we...
Read more »