It’s a hat trick. After all those years of waiting in vain for a rate rise after the financial crisis, now the Bank of England has the wind in its sails and has raised rates three times since December.
The shift up in the base rate to 0.75 per cent hardly takes rates into the stratosphere. Nonetheless, moving from 0.1 per cent to here in four months stands at serious odds with the lower for longer mantra that dominated the past decade and a bit of central bank thinking.
It’s being done to combat inflation that’s now forecast to hit 8 per cent (or maybe higher admits the Bank).
The irony is that interest rate rises will do little to tackle imported inflation.
So is the Bank making the right moves? Is it right to try to crack down on inflation now, or is it putting the Covid recovery at risk? And what does this mean for savers, borrowers and investors?
On this week’s podcast, Tanya Jefferies, Georgie Frost and Simon Lambert discuss the rate hike – if you can call a quarter point rise a hike – and how much more of this may be coming down the line.
Plus, what are the best shares and funds to stash in your Isa in volatile times, do you have to pay tax on a £20,000 bitcoin profit, and would you swap your device trash for cash at Currys?
