Barnet Seagull
Luxury Player
Interest rate rises to 3%
As anticipated, the Bank of England has raised interest rates by 0.75 percentage points to 3%.
It is the biggest single rise in the cost of borrowing since 1989.
The Bank of England's decision means its benchmark interest rates have hit 3% for the first time since November 2008, in the midst of the financial crisis.
Before the economic downturn, the rate for much of the 2000s varied between 3.5 and 6%.
But between July 2007 and March 2009, the Bank's Monetary Policy Committee drastically lowered these rates from 5.75% to 0.5% in response to the crash - and they would remain below 1% until May this year.
And quite frankly, it's madness. Raising interest rates is almost guaranteed to plunge us into a deeper recession.
The reason to raise interest rates is to counter wage inflation. Inflation currently isn't driven by wage inflation, it's supply chain challenges due to Russia and Brexit.
All this does is puts even less money in people's pockets which is not how you stimulate growth in the economy.