Households warned of further rate rises

BRITAIN faces more interest rate rises in the coming years and households should not think of this week’s hike as a one-off, Ben Broadbent has said.

The deputy governor of the Bank of England said he wanted to “clarify” that policymakers are as close as they can get to promising more hikes. “We’ve said, given all the things we assume in our forecast, many of which will be missed… we anticipate we will need maybe a couple more rate rises, to get inflation back on track, while at the same time supporting the economy,” he told the BBC’S Today programme.

The Monetary Policy Committee raised the base rate from 0.25pc to 0.5pc on Thursday in the first increase since 2007.

Markets usually welcome higher rates by pushing up the currency, but the pound fell because of the Bank’s gloomy growth forecasts and lack of precise commitments to more rate hikes.

Mr Broadbent, however, noted that policymakers did not want to tie their hands by pledging specific future rate decisions. Money: Page 1