Bank tipped to wait on interest rates

The Bank of England has been tipped by a string of economic experts to wait for another month at least before reducing the base rate of interest.

People looking to become debt free could be hoping for a cut in the cost of borrowing in March, but analysts are convinced that the bank will hold fire in light of concerns over the rate of inflation.

A decision on the base rate of interest will be taken by the bank’s monetary policy committee (MPC) on March 6th and experts from HSBC, Halifax, Lloyds TSB and the Royal Bank of Scotland have all asserted that there will be no change.

Howard Archer from Global Insight said: “Next week’s meeting of the MPC is highly likely to prove too soon to yield the next 25 basis point interest rate cut to five per cent given current elevated inflationary pressures.”

Paul Dales, UK economist with Capital Economics, suggested recently that the Bank of England’s reduction of interest rates this month has not been fully passed on to people who are struggling with debt management problems around the country.