BoE rate cut expected before Christmas - papers 16th Sept

Data from the Office for National Statistics revealed consumer spending is now “depressed”, says the Guardian, “by a cocktail of a weak housing market, fears of terrorist attacks and the nation's new-found love affair with watching cricket on TV”. An analyst from Bank of America is predicting the Bank of England base rate will stand at 3.75% by mid-2006, but there could be a rate cut as early as November. BIRMINGHAM MIDSHIRES is to disappear from the high street after more than 150 years as HBOS, its owner, has decided to shut the former building society's branch network, says this mo...