from 5 per cent to 5.25 per cent when its monetary policy committee meets on Thursday, which would be the 14th increase in consecutive months.that they expect the central bank to impose further hikes at meetings in September, November and December and that it could take up to a year before rates starts falling.
They are split on whether there will be three more increases to take the base rate to 5.75 per cent by the end of the year, or four more with rates topping out at 6 per cent. George Buckley, chief UK economist at banking giant Nomura, expects interest rates to hit a peak of 5.75 per cent in November and forecasts that they will not begin to fall until the end of 2024.Simon Wells, chief European economist at HSBC, believes the Bank will go further on Thursday, predicting that the base rate will rise to 5.5 per cent to match the one in June.
“We still expect the Bank of England to announce a 50 basis point rate hike although the recent soft data make it a very close call,” said Mr Wells, who believes rates could peak as high as 6 per cent. Just over two thirds of the UK’s leading economic thinkers believe the central bank will opt to raise the base rate by 25 basis points to 5.25 per cent on Thursday, according to a Bloomberg poll, while almost a third think it could opt for a a half point hike to 5.75 per cent.