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Monetary policy

BoE's Walton sees no rush for rate move

David Walton, the newest member of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee, told the Times that inflation could easily remain above the Bank's 2 percent target for some months while economic growth seemed to have recovered somewhat.

Bank of England voted 9-0 to hold rates

The Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee voted unanimously for a third month in November to keep the benchmark interest rate unchanged, according to minutes released on Wednesday 23 November.

BoE: no rates change

The Bank of England left its main interest rate yesterday, 9 November, unchanged at 4.5% for the third month in succession. The decision was widely expected after recent comments by Mervyn King, governor of the Bank, indicating he was against rate cuts.

Comment: Activism the ECB way

Yesterday, 9 November, Jean-Claude Trichet explained how the ECB's decision to leave interest rates unchanged for more than two years should not be equated to non-activist monetary policy.

ARB sees "modest" inflation threat

The Australian Reserve Bank said in its monetary policy statement released on Monday 7 November that it expects "a modest" increase in inflation rate and hinted that interest rates would remain on hold this year.

Comment: Braced for a bumpy ride

The Bank of England, along with central banks in several other developed countries, has enjoyed fairly benign conditions in recent years. Inflation pressures have been relatively low, avoiding the need for the Bank to make the tough choice between output…

Bank of England's MPC voted 9-0 to hold rates

Minutes from the Bank of England's 5 and 6 October meeting, released 19 October, showed that all nine members of the Monetary Policy Committee voted to keep interest rates at 4.5 percent this month, not even discussing arguments for a cut.

BoE's Lambert warns on disappointing GDP

Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee member Richard Lambert warned in a newspaper interview on Thursday 29 September that UK GDP growth is likely to fall short of the central bank's best estimate and that consumer spending remains weak.

Bank of England Quarterly Bulletin, Autumn 2005

The Bank of England released its Quarterly Bulletin Autumn 2005 on Monday. The Bulletin includes the article "Assessing the MPC's fan charts" which says the Bank's use of fan charts has given a 'reasonably good guide' to the risks surrounding the outlook…

Comment: Challenging 'received wisdom'

In delivering the Keynes Lecture in Economics at the British Academy on Tuesday, Bank of England MPC member, Professor Stephen Nickell, set out to refute two major areas of criticism of MPC's track-record over the last five years.

U.K. interest rates are heading for a decline

The Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee will decide on UK interest rates this Thursday. This article published on Wednesday 7 September suggests there will no surprise when the MPC leaves interest rates unchanged at 4.5 per cent, but rates are…

In search of King's defence

Two articles published Thursday reflected on the Bank of England's last MPC meeting which saw the governor outvoted for the first time. One says the UK's "boring" monetary policy just got a whole lot more interesting, noting that heavyweight Charlie Bean…

Bank of England MPC Minutes, 3 & 4 August

The minutes from the 3 & 4 August meeting of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee published on Wednesday 17 August showed governor Mervyn King and three other top officials voted against this month's decision by the nine member MPC to cut…

Comment:Test for Mervyn King's communication skill

What does yesterday's revelation that the top brass of the Bank of England's MPC were outvoted at August's monetary policy meeting imply for the market's view of future interest movements in the UK? And what does it tell us about the institutional set-up…

Doubts on Bank of England's forecasting

Nobody could say that Mervyn King, governor of the Bank of England, was defensive at yesterday's press conference on the latest Inflation Report (who has ever seen Mervyn on the defensive?), but he certainly knew he had some explaining to do.

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