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A 25 basis point (bps) rate cut at August’s meeting, from 4.25% to 4.00%, is nailed on Risk of second-round effects means the MPC won’t speed up the pace of rate cuts But we still think rates will fall further than most expect, to 3.00% in 2026 The …
31st July 2025
Falling employment and easing wage growth suggest MPC won’t slow pace of cuts Growing chance that rates fall below 3.50% Limited influence of rate cuts pose questions over speed of QT The Bank of England will almost certainly leave interest rates at 4.25% …
12th June 2025
A 25 basis point (bps) rate cut in May is a done deal Markets have got ahead of themselves in expecting four 25bps rate cuts in 2025 But the risks are tilting towards rates being cut further than markets expect, perhaps to 3.00% The Bank of England will …
2nd May 2025
Consecutive interest rate cuts unlikely Vote may again make the MPC look more dovish than it really is Even so, rates may eventually be cut to 3.50% rather than to the low of 4.00% investors expect The Bank of England will almost certainly leave interest …
13th March 2025
Bank to cut interest rates by 25bps at February’s meeting, from 4.75% to 4.50% The tail risks of both faster disinflation and slower disinflation have increased Rate cuts to stay gradual, but rates to fall to 3.50% in 2026 versus market pricing of 4.00% …
30th January 2025
Deterioration in global outlook has increased the downside risks to UK GDP growth… …but Trump’s election win and the UK Budget have boosted the upside risks to UK inflation MPC to keep rates at 4.75% in December and to continue to cut by 25 basis points …
12th December 2024
An interest rate cut from 5.00% to 4.75% seems nailed on for November It’s less clear whether BoE will quicken the pace and cut rates in December too We think cuts will remain gradual until mid-2025, with rates eventually falling to 3.00% The Bank of …
31st October 2024
We think the markets are wrong to expect two more interest rate cuts this year But we think rates will be cut more quickly next year and to 3.00% in early 2026 MPC may speed up QT by announcing a £110bn reduction in the balance sheet We agree with the …
13th September 2024
Almost ready to cut But economic resilience and sticky inflation will probably mean MPC waits until September We think rates will be cut to 3.00% next year, below current market pricing of 4.00% While it will be a very close call, the economy’s recent …
25th July 2024
BoE watching and waiting for more evidence that inflation will settle at the 2% target But a summer rate cut is more likely than investors expect We think rates will be cut to 3.00% next year, below current market pricing of 4.00% Far more interesting …
13th June 2024
We’ll be discussing the outlook for Bank of England policy in a 20-minute online briefing at 3pm BST on Thursday 9 th May. (Register here .) Rates on hold at 5.25% and Bank unlikely to provide a strong hint first cut will be soon Faster fall in inflation …
2nd May 2024
Interest rates unchanged at 5.25% and BoE to keep hawkish guidance But data not the guidance counts We think rates will fall to 3.00% in 2025 rather than to 4.00% as investors expect At the policy meeting on Thursday 21 st March, the Bank of England will …
14th March 2024
We’ll be discussing the outlook for Fed, ECB and Bank of England policy in a 20-minute online briefing at 3pm GMT on Thursday 1 st February. (Register here .) No one to vote for a rate hike and tightening bias to be dropped Bank to push back against …
25th January 2024
Bank of England to keep interest rates unchanged at 5.25% but retain its hawkish bias It won’t risk fuelling bets on earlier rate cuts by watering down its forward guidance We expect Bank Rate to be cut later, but by more than most expect With the Bank …
7th December 2023
Note: We’ll be discussing the latest Fed, ECB and Bank of England policy decisions in a Drop-In at 3pm GMT on Thursday 2 nd November . (Register here .) A second consecutive hold to all-but confirm that 5.25% is the summit for interest rates Sticky core …
26th October 2023
We’ll be discussing September’s Fed, ECB and Bank of England policy decisions in a Drop-In at 3pm BST on Thursday 21 st September. (Register here .) Final 25bps hike to 5.50% to be followed by rates staying at their peak until late in 2024 Bank may …
14th September 2023
25bps hike and peak in sight Reverting to a 25bps hike rather than 50bps Rate hikes may come to a halt a bit sooner than most analysts and investors expect After a lengthy pause, rates to fall further than investors expect in late 2024 and in 2025 We’ll …
27th July 2023
Bank of England likely to raise interest by 25 basis points next Thursday, from 4.50% to 4.75% The recent persistence of inflation supports our view that rates will rise to a peak of 5.25% Rate cuts remain a distant prospect The recent persistence of …
15th June 2023
Will 4.50% be the peak? Markets and economists have come round to our view that rates will rise to 4.50% 4.50% may well be the peak Risk is that resilient economy and sticky inflation prompt rise to 4.75% or 5.00% With the financial markets and other …
4th May 2023
Close call, but if the situation doesn’t deteriorate further we think there will be a 25bps hike Beyond that, fading of banking worries and stronger data required for more hikes Markets may be underestimating how far interest rates will be cut next year …
16th March 2023
Despite some good news, another 50bps rate hike is most likely Next phase will be MPC pausing to assess influence of higher rates, but we’re not there yet Next big surprise may be that rates are cut by more than investors expect in 2024 Another 50 basis …
26th January 2023
Shift down from 75bps hike in November to 50bps hike in December MPC starting to think more about the level of rates rather than the pace of rate hikes We think rates will rise to a peak of 4.50%, before being cut sharply in 2024 A shift from the 75 …
8th December 2022
Rising price/wage expectations will prompt the MPC to hike rates aggressively on Thursday It’s almost 50-50 between a 75bps and 100bps hike, but we are going for 100bps Our forecast that rates will peak at 5.00% remains higher than the consensus …
27th October 2022
Another 50 bps hike, a 75 bps increase is not out of the question PM’s fiscal expansion means Bank may have to raise rates further to hit 2% inflation target Rates to peak at 4.00% Although the new Prime Minister, Liz Truss, has saved some of the …
8th September 2022
MPC to raise rates by a bigger 50bps and to leave the door open to more 50bps hikes Our forecast that rates will peak at 3.00% remains higher than the consensus forecast of 2.00% Bank takes another step closer to gilt sales We expect the Monetary Policy …
28th July 2022
The markets and consensus are underestimating the chances of a 50bps rate hike It’s almost 50-50 between a 50bps and 25bps hike, but we’re going for 50bps Either way, recent events support our view that interest rates will rise to 3.00% next year The …
9th June 2022
Rising price/wage expectations will prompt MPC to raise interest rates by 25bps MPC to announce its decision to sell some of its gilt holdings A tight labour market/more persistent price pressures may mean rates rise to 3.00% in 2023 The weakening …
28th April 2022
War in Ukraine worsening the tricky mix between rising inflation and slowing GDP growth Rising price expectations to force MPC to raise interest rates by 25bps A tight labour market may mean that rates rise to 2.00% next year The economic consequences of …
10th March 2022
The unfavourable growth/inflation trade-off has worsened We think investors are right to price in an interest rate hike in February to 0.50% And we expect rates to rise to 1.25% by end-2022, further than most anticipate The further surge in inflation …
27th January 2022
A hike this month does not look likely, but is possible Omicron is unlikely to prompt more QE or negative interest rates Lift off to occur early next year, but rates probably won’t rise as far as investors expect We wouldn’t completely rule it out, but we …
9th December 2021
Investors may be right that the MPC will hike rates in November or December But we think they are wrong to price in rates rising as far as 1.25% by end-2022 Our new forecast is for rates to rise to 0.50% by February, but no higher next year We now think …
28th October 2021
MPC’s position that interest rate hikes are on the horizon won’t have changed But the weak near-term growth outlook means that a rate rise is unlikely soon We think that Bank Rate will remain unchanged at 0.10% until 2023 The Monetary Policy Committee …
16th September 2021
The MPC will probably revise up its near-term inflation forecasts. Only Saunders to break ranks to vote in favour of an early end to the Bank’s net asset purchases. The MPC is unlikely to signal interest rate hikes are getting closer. While the Bank of …
29th July 2021
MPC to acknowledge stronger activity and inflation But it will probably continue to hint policy won’t need to be tightened until late in 2022 We think 2024 is more realistic, and that some QE will be unwound before interest rates rise Even though the …
17th June 2021
The MPC will probably revise up its economic forecasts But it will reiterate its guidance that rates will remain unchanged for a long time MPC likely to stop QE before the Fed and the ECB Given the better starting point and improving economic outlook, it …
29th April 2021
MPC won’t respond to higher gilt yields by stepping up the pace of its QE purchases But it will reiterate its guidance that rates will remain unchanged for a long time The change to the MPC’s remit may alter the composition of bond purchases, but not the …
11th March 2021
Bank to emphasise it is willing to provide more support and has the tools to do so But there is a lot of QE already in the pipeline and we doubt it’s ready to use negative rates Our relatively optimistic economic forecasts suggest it won’t need to either …
28th January 2021
Vaccines mean the recovery may not need a further monetary boost But monetary policy will remain extremely loose for years yet And a no deal Brexit could yet prompt further easing The next Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting on Thursday 17 th December …
10th December 2020
Consensus comes round to our view that MPC will expand QE by £100bn in November This won’t be the last QE expansion Negative rates are possible, but probably not for another 6-12 months Back in June, we were pretty much alone in forecasting that the MPC …
28th October 2020
Downside risks to the Bank of England’s forecasts are crystallising MPC will wait until the current QE program is ending before adding more stimulus QE still the tool of choice, negative rates possible further ahead The initial recovery has been …
10th September 2020
The MPC is unlikely to expand QE before November But it may signal that further stimulus will be needed at some point It could revise down the effective lower bound, leaving the door open to negative rates We expect the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) to …
30th July 2020
MPC likely to announce another £100bn of QE in June… …and that won’t be the last expansion Negative interest rates possible, but far from guaranteed The Bank of England has much more work to do. It will probably start by announcing £100bn more …
11th June 2020
MPC to signal it continues to stand behind gilt market There’s a chance it could extend QE But that’s probably more likely to happen in the coming months The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) will probably use its policy announcement on Thursday 7 th May to …
30th April 2020
Big stimulus package from BoE has succeeded so far in easing some financial market stresses But with financial conditions still unusually tight, the Bank may need to do more The Bank may need to test out some new, extreme, tools The decisive action taken …
20th March 2020
January’s decision whether to cut rates is very close We think that the MPC will keep rates on hold as the economy appears to have turned a corner We expect the next move in interest rates to be up rather than down, albeit not until 2021 January’s …
24th January 2020
Vlieghe might join Saunders and Haskel in voting for a cut But the election result and prospect of a Brexit deal may mean the majority is content to wait Chances of a rate cut arguably higher in January If the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) wanted to cut …
13th December 2019
The economy may be on a path that would eventually prompt the MPC to cut rates… …but the chance of a Brexit deal in January will keep the toolbox in the closet for now Unless the headwinds of weak global growth and Brexit uncertainty fade, the next move …
31st October 2019
MPC may be a bit less concerned about a no deal Brexit… …but will still hold off on raising rates It seems almost certain that the MPC will keep interest rates at 0.75% at its next meeting on Thursday 19 th September. The minutes may be slightly more …
12th September 2019
Beware of a misleading hawkish signal Key message is that the MPC has become less hawkish, but not as dovish as the markets Far more interesting than the probable decision by the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) to leave interest rates at 0.75% on Thursday …
25th July 2019
