BoE splits on rate hike, paves way for May rise
london — The Bank of England kept interest rates steady on Thursday but two policymakers unexpectedly voted for a hike, boosting confidence among investors that borrowing costs will rise in May for only the second time since the 2008 financial crisis.
Ian McCafferty and Michael Saunders — the first officials to call for rates to rise last year — said it was now time to push them above the emergency level at which they have sat for most of the past decade.
The world economy is growing at its fastest since the financial crisis, helping Britain at a time when it is suffering from uncertainty about Brexit.
The US Federal Reserve on Wednesday raised rates for the sixth time since the financial crisis. Even the European Central Bank — which is still struggling with anaemic price growth — has its eye on phasing out its massive bond purchases. The BoE’s Monetary Policy Committee voted 7-2 to keep rates at 0.5 per cent but said “ongoing tightening” was likely to be needed to return inflation, which stood at 2.7 per cent in February, back to its 2 per cent target.
“The message from the Bank of England to borrowers couldn’t really be clearer: get ready for higher rates now,” said Ed Monk of fund managers Fidelity International.
The BoE raised rates for the first time in over a decade in November, reversing an emergency cut when the economy appeared to be going into shock after Britain’s June 2016 Brexit vote.
Since then, growth has held up better than expected — though last year the British economy lagged a global upturn as high inflation caused by sterling weakness since the referendum ate into households’ disposable income.
No economist polled by Reuters expected the BoE to repeat November’s 25-basis-point rate rise on Thursday, and only a minority expected Saunders or McCafferty to vote for a rise. —