Inflation continues to rise above the 2% target but the Bank of England sees no need to raise rates (yet). That’s the way things will remain for some time, just as long as expectations of future inflation don’t take off, pay growth remains muted and investment and export demand pick up the baton of growth from the consumer. Continue reading
MPC
Chief Economist’s Weekly Brief – Next time, I promise.
The Bank of England surprised last week by not cutting interest rates. The accompanying statement showed that most members expect to loosen monetary policy at August’s meeting. But given that expectation it left a perculiar question in its aftermath. If then, why not now? Continue reading
Chief Economist’s Weekly Brief – Decision time
With five weeks to go before the EU referendum the campaigns are now in full swing and scrutinising every piece of data for signs of Brexit nervousness. Yet there’s still a lot going on that isn’t driven by our domestic political agenda and the Bank of England conceeded that the noise is making its job of interpreting the data more difficult. Continue reading
Chief Economist’s Weekly Brief – Headwinds
Markets expect the first rise in Bank Rate in December 2018. And judging from the Inflation Report, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) members seem at ease with this. Their reason? Global economic headwinds that are blowing harder than before.