Interest rates held at 4.75% |
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Published
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Fri, 11 Mar 2005 01:00
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Interest rates in the UK will remain 4.75 percent in March as announced by the Bank of England today.
With little movement in the housing and property markets the MPC (Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted for the bank’s interest rate to remain at its highest in three years for the seventh consecutive month.
| The verdict did not come as a surprise at all since it was being highly expected by most analysts polled by Reuters, Bloomberg as well as the AFP.
Nevertheless, the interest halt is not being seen to last very long. Paul Tucker, the first MPC member in five months to vote for increasing the base rate was followed closely by others like Rachel Lomax, Kate Barker, Charles Bean and Marian Bell in voting for the same and analysts say that their annotations could well be heralding an impending hike of the interest rate to about 5%.
Besides, other harbingers of a rise in interest rate could be the current appreciable job figures, the steady housing market and growing consumer confidence, which cause inflation. The Bank of England is known to be making such transitions (increase decrease) in the interest rates so that the level of inflation is able to adhere to its 2% target. An increase in interest rates was brought into effect four times in the past year and about £1,000 was added to the average mortgage repayment costs.
However, about 3.2 million people are just not happy with the news according to Debt Free Direct. They are dreading the probable interest hike as it could make debt repayment possibilities only more difficult for them.
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