Managers divided over rate rises

Summing up the reaction to the Bank of England’s 25bps rise to 5pc, Mehrdad Yousefi, head of intermediary mortgages at Alliance and Leicester, said it “was as close to being a done deal as you could get”. The Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), commentators said, had been keen to stem negative inflationary pressures on the economy since August – a factor which made the rise inevitable. However, while some forecast further hikes based on strengthening economic data and a hawkish MPC, others are less certain. Richard Woolnough, manager of M&G’s Corporate Bond fund, thinks rises a...