John Whittaker, Senior Teaching Fellow in Economics, Lancaster University.____
The Bank of England was widely expected to slightly increase its official bank rate on November 4, but it decided to stick to the all-time low of 0.1%. However, the bank has made it clear that a rise will soon be needed, and the recent increases in mortgage rates indicate that lenders agree. So why the decision to hold off?
The Bank of England is well aware of the distress that higher rates cause for borrowers and, in particular, for the biggest borrower in the land: the UK government. At the current level of national debt, roughly GBP 2trn (USD 2.69trn), every rise in rates by one percentage point pushes up the interest paid by the government on its bonds by GBP
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