Credit card customers may be interested to hear that interest rates are not expected to rise by more than a quarter of a percentage point over the course of 2007, according to a forecast by one banking specialist.
On February 8th 2007, the Bank of England's monetary policy committee is scheduled to convene to discuss what changes, if any, should be made to the present base rate of 5.25 per cent.
With consumer prices index inflation currently standing at three per cent and the start of the year typically heralding the advent of fresh salary negotiations, many banking analysts have attempted to predict what action the committee is likely to recommend.
Now, a statement from banking intelligence specialists Global Insight has indicated that it feels a quarter-point rise will probably not take place this month.
"We believe that it is more likely that the Bank of England will delay acting until March," the statement asserted.
"We believe that 5.5 per cent will mark the peak in interest rates as growth loses some momentum over the coming months and inflation heads back down."
The Bank has raised interest rates three times in the preceding six months, meaning that most credit card users are now facing higher repayments than this time last year.
News Side
Credit card users alerted to new interest rate forecast
Mon, 05 Feb 2007
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