With Bank of Canada and the Fed interest rate announcements wrapped up, it’s time for Bank of England to announce their decision whether to increase, decrease or leave the interest rate unchanged. The decision is set to be announced at 12:00 PM London time on Thursday.

About Interest Rates

Interest rates are set by Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee which is made of nine members – The Governor, the three Deputy Governors for Monetary Policy, Financial Stability and Markets & Banking, the Bank’s Chief Economist and four external members appointed directly by the Chancellor.

Bank of England has an inflation target of 2% (currently 0.9%), which is set by the Government – the Bank of England’s monetary policy is set to achieve the Government’s target.

Expectations

The UK economy, like most in the world, has taken a hit over the last year since the COVID-19 pandemic began. The last time Bank of England changed its key interest rates was last year on 19 March, from 0.25% to 0.10%.

Bank of England interest changes since 2008

Despite UK still being in lockdown, the pace of the vaccination program (25 million people vaccinated so far) is giving a glimmer of hope of the economy getting back to some sort of normality in the coming months.

It is highly unlikely that the interest rates will be changed in the upcoming meeting, but all eyes will be on the policy meeting minutes and the outlook on the economy with restrictions starting to get lifted from next month.

Remaining Bank of England rate announcement dates for 2021

• 6^th May
• 4^th June
• 5^th August
• 23^rd September
• 4^th November
• 16^th December

You can keep up to date with economic announcements and events by clicking here for our GO Markets Economic Calendar.