Investing.com – At its meeting ending July 31, 2024, the Central Bank of England lowered interest rates by 0.25 percentage points to 5%.
The decision was made by voting with a majority of 5 to 4 to reduce the amount of borrowing. Four members of the Bank of England have expressed their preference to keep the interest rate at 5.25%.
According to British bankers, “the impact of previous external shocks has subsided and some progress has been made in containing the risks of persistent inflation. Although the GDP is stronger than expected – we read in the Boe note -, the strict orientation of the monetary policy continues to weigh on the activity of the real economy, leading to a relaxation of the labor market and slowdown to inflationary pressures.
Finally, the British central bank emphasizes that monetary policy “needs to continue to remain tight for a sufficiently long period, until the risks that inflation continues to return to the 2% objective in the medium term will not abate.” The Committee – concludes Boe – continues to carefully monitor the risks of the persistence of inflation and will decide on the appropriate level of monetary policy tightening from meeting to meeting”.