Bank unanimous over interest rates freeze

19th July 2007

There’s more evidence that the Bank of England won’t be altering interest rates in the near future. Minutes from the last meeting of the Bank’s rate-setting committee, the MPC, show that all seven members voted to keep the cost of borrowing unchanged at 4.5% in July.

The minutes showed that the MPC left rates unchanged because a weaker jobs market would help to ease pricing pressure. Experts have said they now expect interest rates to stay on hold for a while – so your mortgage repayments shouldn’t change.

James Knightly, who’s an economist at ING, thinks there’s little appetite amongst MPC members for an imminent change in the base rate. He said: “We suspect that they will raise rates in November.” Your mortgage could, then, get more expensive towards the end of the year. James Knightly said: “We look for rates to peak at 4.75%, while the markets see the risk of them going to 5.25% next year.”