Bank of England 'knife-edge' interest rate decision grips markets – business live – The Guardian, Theguardian.com
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) The Bank of England building on Threadneedle Street in the City of London. Photograph: Graham Turner / The GuardianGood morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of the world economy, the financial markets, the eurozone and business. After more than six years at the Bank of England , Mark Carney will today announce his final decision on interest rates. And it’s possibly the trickiest judgement faced by the governor yet. Carney, and his colleagues on the Monetary Policy Committee, must weigh up whether to slash borrowing costs to give the economy a lift, or sit tight and see whether there’s really a “Boris Bounce” after last month’s election.
The odds of a rate cut have been volatile in recent weeks – hitting over % at one stage, after Weak growth figures suggested the economy was flatlining. But they have dropped back to % in recent days, after survey data suggested the private sector is growing again. Glenn FX (@ GlennTullett)Today the Bank of England announces UK interest rates. Markets price a 70% chance of a cut in rates.
It’s not clear that the remaining five ‘internal’ members of the committee will back calls for easing right now. Admittedly, we don’t have that much to go on in terms of communication, but as we noted at the time , our sense from Governor Mark Carney’s recent speech was that he hadn’t been fully convinced of the merits of cutting interest rates this month. While his comments were perhaps the most candid he has been on the idea of easing, he noted the better news on politics, and pushed back on the idea that the Bank was running out of ammunition. ING Economics (@ ING_Economics)
Bank of England meeting today!
@ smitheconomics
expects we’re likely to get either a 6-3 or 5-4 vote in favor of keeping rates on hold. But he’s certainly not ruling out any easing. (https://t.co/O1PGv2Mw8X)
Fears over the coronavirus are intensifying today, as
the death toll rises to (overnight) . Asian stock markets are deep in the red, with Hong Kong losing another 2.8%. Yesterday, Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell said the outbreak would have an impact on the Chinese economy, and the wider global economy, adding:
We find out how America’s economy fared in the last quarter. of . Economists predict growth remained around 2.1% per year – not exactly sizzling. And it’s a busy day in the City, with oil company Shell reporting a halving of its profits, Unilever reviewing its global tea business, and BT warning that the UK’s curbs on Huawei will cost it £ m. Mark Sweney(@ marksweney)
BT estimates it will cost £ m over next five years to replace Huawei kit from EE’s 5G network, and the roll out of it’s full fiber broadband network, to meet the government new (% cap.) (January) , 5616 The agenda
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