by William Schomberg
LONDON (Reuters) – The Bank of England (BoE) is due to announce on Thursday whether it will pause its interest rate hikes as inflation in Britain unexpectedly slowed in the month of august.
Investors now estimate a 50% probability of a status quo on rates after 14 consecutive increases since December 2021, which brought the BoE’s main key rate to 5.25%.
Some analysts indicated that they still expected one last rate hike, after the recent rise in oil prices, stressing however that nothing was decided.
BoE Governor Andrew Bailey and members of the institution’s Monetary Policy Committee came under harsh criticism after inflation exceeded 11% in the United Kingdom last October.
According to the ONS, UK consumer prices rose 6.7% year-on-year last month, while economists polled by Reuters on average forecast an acceleration to 7.0% after a 6.0% rise. .8% in July.
Even at this level, inflation would remain more than twice its target of 2%.
(Report by William Schomberg; by Camille Raynaud)
Copyright © 2023 Thomson Reuters
I have over 8 years of experience working in the news industry. I have worked as a reporter, editor, and now managing editor at 247 News Agency. I am responsible for the day-to-day operations of the news website and overseeing all of the content that is published. I also write a column for the website, covering mostly market news.
