The Bank of England (BoE) on Thursday (November 2) announced its decision to leave interest rates unchanged at 5.25%. The decision, which came in line with the market expectation, was taken in the November policy meeting.

Share Market Live

NSE

#BankofEngland holds interest rates at 5.25% pic.twitter.com/UghjeI1Mxq

— CNBC-TV18 (@CNBCTV18Live) November 2, 2023

In a statement released by BoE, the bank’s nine-member Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) indicated that inflation is set to fall towards a 2% target rate over the coming year. In the year to September, inflation stood at 6.7%.

The central bank last month broke the cycle of interest rate hikes by resisting market expectations for a 25-basis-point hike. The September decision came on the heels of a series of 14 consecutive rate hikes that commenced back in December 2021, when the interest rates were at a mere 0.1%.

The BoE unfurled a cycle of rate hikes to counter price rise issues that emerged from the COVID-19 pandemic followed by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which pushed up food and energy costs.

With inflation cooling down, central banks across the world are resisting interest rate hikes. The US Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank (ECB) have also held interest rates over the past week.

Also Read:Bank of England keeps interest rate unchanged for first time in nearly two years

(Edited by : Shoma Bhattacharjee)

First Published:Nov 2, 2023 5:46 PM IST