New Bank of England governor Mark Carney gave households and businesses a boost as he said interest rates will remain at their record low until unemployment falls below 7%. Unveiling a new strategy of forward guidance, the Bank said rates will remain at 0.5% until at least the end of 2016 unless inflation rises sharply. Mr Carney said that "a renewed recovery is now under way" as the Bank predicted 0.6% growth in the third quarter and said inflation is unlikely to rise above 3% this year - lower than previous fears of a peak of around 3.5%. The Bank also pledged not to scale back its £375 billion economy-boosting programme of quantitative easing (QE) while unemployment remains above 7%.
Posted on: Wed, 07 Aug 2013 13:35:02 +0000