The extent of the shift in investors’ expectations of interest rates over the past month has been staggering. Investors are now pricing in an 80% chance of a hike to Bank Rate, from 0.10% to 0.25%, at the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting on 4th And a further rise to 0.50% is now fully discounted in markets by the meeting on 3rd February. We agree with investors that an interest rate hike in the next few months looks increasingly likely. But, in our view, the extent of tightening that investors have priced in looks wide of the mark. Instead, we expect the Bank of England to hike rates gradually and by less than most expect. That’s based on our forecast that economic activity will be soft over the next few months, and that CPI inflation will peak just shy of 5% in April 2022 and fall back sharply thereafter.
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