As widely expected, The Bank of England has increased rates to 5% from 4.5%. This is the 13th increase in a row, and it is a response to Inflation Rates that are remaining stubbornly high.
The recently-announced May 2023 RPI figure is 11.3% – down from 11.4% in April. The May CPI figure remains unchanged from April at 8.7%. Once again, as the FT pointed out, all of the main global forecasters that we’d expect to predict this fairly accurately (the IMF, the ECB and the Federal Reserve) are doing little better than the Bank of England [£].
Coupled with an historic failure to realise that productivity growth would fail to rise after the global financial crash of 2008, or the largely-resultant stagnation in real wages since.
As ever, the BBC are quick off the mark with a briefing on how this will affect individuals – here.