A Half-point Rise In Bank Rate Early Next Month Now Looks Certain

23rd January 2023

David Smith is an economist for regularly calling up what is to come from an economics point of view.

Worryingly he ends his latest overview about interest rates for next month from the Bank of England.

Recent days have brought what looks on the face of it to be more good news on the economy. Inflation fell again to 10.5 per cent and appears to be past its peak, which is welcome. We should never forget that, in the absence of government price support, in particular this winter's freeze on household energy bills at an average of £2,500, we could have been looking at 13 or 14 per cent consumer price inflation by now.

Food price inflation, as has been widely noted, rose to 16.8 per cent last month, its highest yet in this sequence. A year earlier, in December 2021, it was a mere 1.6 per cent.

Read his latest blog item HERE