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Podcast: Beyond Currency
Episode: 23 June 2023 - UK rates up 0.5% in fight against inflation
Description: The Bank of England raised interest rates for the thirteenth consecutive meeting yesterday as the entire market expected they would. However, they surprised almost everyone by hiking by fifty basis points.
This was most likely in reaction to the May inflation report, which was released the previous day and showed that headline inflation was unchanged at 8.7% while the core actually rose to 7.1% after a reading of 6.8% in April.
The base rate of interest is now at 5%, its highest level for fifteen years.
The market, although taken aback by the newly hawkish stance of the Bank, appreciated that it was taking...