Interest Rates stay at 0.5%

The Bank of England yesterday backed off from raising interest rates in the face of a surprising slowdown this year, but stressed that its fundamental view on the health of the UK economy has not shifted. Threadneedle Street said the collapse in GDP growth in the first quarter of 2018 was “likely to have been overstated” thanks to temporary disruption from the poor weather suggesting the central bank is still looking to raise the cost of borrowing again later this year. ”The underlying pace of growth remains more resilient than the headline data suggest,” said the BoE’s governor Mark Carney. The Bank’s nine person Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted by a margin of seven to two to keep rates on hold at 0.5 per cent.