The Bank of England’s MPC announced today that the UK Bank Interest Rate is to remain at an all-time low of 0.5%. This is the sixty eighth month in which the Monetary Committee has met and voted to keep the rate at 0.5%.
The Bank of England cut interest rates to a record low of 0.5% in March 2009 at the height of the financial crisis and has voted to keep them there ever since. Recently, Sir Jon Cunliffe, BOE’s Mr Carney’s deputy, said rates could remain low “for a longer period that previously thought” because weak wage growth is keeping a lid on inflation.
To put this in perspective the average BOE base rate from 1975-2008 was 8.6%, from 2009-2014 it has been 0.5% – that’s a drop of 95%!!!
