Bank of England

The Bank of England has left its main interest rate at 4% today, avoiding another raise despite continued evidence of a hot housing market.

The Office for National Statistics has surprised the market with stronger than expected retail sales figures for January, suggesting the Bank of England will be under more pressure to consider another interest rate increase within the month.

The Monetary Policy Committee voted unanimously to raise interest rates earlier this month when the base rate was increased to 4% from 3.75%, minutes from the February 4 and 5 meeting show.

YESTERDAY'S INFLATION REPORT from the Bank of England can only mean one thing, and that is interest rates are set to continue rising, The Times writes.

The latest quarterly inflation report from the Bank of England says inflation according to the consumer price index should move up towards the 2% target as business investment and consumer spending continue to grow.

FINANCIAL SERVICES companies took a leaf out of the book of oil companies yesterday by almost immediately announcing rises to interest rates applied to mortgages equal to the 0.25% hike in the base rate, while at the same time delaying raising interest...

The Bank of England has just announced it will raise the base interest rate by 0.25%, the second increase in three months.

Bristol & West (B&W) economist Laurence Sanders predicts the Bank of England's base rate will peak at 5.5% by December 2005, before falling back to a rate of 4.5% one year later.