March rise in interest rates “extremely likely”

Richard Snook, from the Centre for Economics and Business Research (cebr), suggests that there is a strong chance that inflation in the UK will rise above targets set by the Bank of England (BoE) and a rate raise could be necessary as a result.

“Should inflation bounce back in February driven by the implementation of higher air passenger duty and the pay settlement round then a March interest rate rise is extremely likely,” he said.

Mr Snook was speaking in response to the BoE’s most recent inflation report, which showed an easing of consumer price inflation from its three per cent during December down to 2.7 per cent for January.

Typically, a rise in interest rates makes borrowing money a less attractive prospect for British consumers and a need for debt management plan advice more likely to arise.