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At the start of this week there was a widespread expectation that the Bank of England would confirm an interest rate cut of the base rate to 0.25% at its regular meeting on Thursday. Even the Governor, Mark Carney, had given a broad hint last week by saying that

Bank of England interest rates will remain unchanged at their record low of 0.5% making it 4 years since the last rate change, back in March 2009. Despite pressure for The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) to do more to help support the economy, the nine-man committee have decided

The financial services industry loves it’s 3 letter acronyms or initialisms to be precise. It’s no wonder the public are ITD (in the dark). The Regulators don’t help, but it wasn’t the FSA. Before them it was the PII (and before them – the LIA). The FSA’s days are numbered –

With the latest inflation figures showing RPI at 5.6% pa and CPI (the governments preferred measure) sitting at 5.2% pa it easy to be startled by the headlines – inflation is currently high and well above the Bank of England’s target of 2.0%. The issue of whether the Bank of England

The inflation figures for the UK economy released on 18th October 2011 for the year ending in September 2011 have confirmed the continuing upward trend.  The Retail Prices Index (RPI) measurement is now 5.6% pa (the highest since June 1991) and up from 5.2% in August. The Consumers Prices Index

Inflation figures (released on 16th August 2011) provided no surprises as CPI increased to 4.4% (up 0.2% from June) and RPI remained steady at 5.0%. Risers Unusually there was not one single component that drove the increase in CPI annual inflation between June and July. Instead, upward pressures

After a busy week of trying to sure up the Greek economy a deal appears to have been struck.  This has gone some way to appease the markets – which are particularly inept at coping with uncertainty.  How long the stability lasts remains to be seen.  UK stocks have

For couples and individuals who rely on savings income to make ends meet times are getting bleaker. The Bank of England (BoE) Base Rate remains at an all time low of 0.5% despite the fact that Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation is now running in excess of 4.5%. There

The FTSE All Share index, representing the performance of all 623 eligible companies listed on the London Stock Exchange has finished the week at 2,985.57, an increase of 8.10 points on the day but 27.05 points lower than its 3,012.62 opening value at the start of the week. So

The FTSE All Share index, representing the performance of all 623 eligible companies listed on the London Stock Exchange has finished the week at 3,099.97, a slight decrease of 3.02 points on the day and 9.45 points higher than its’ 3,102.99 opening value at the start of the week.

Its been a busy week in the aftermath of the Royal Wedding. The Bank of England’s MPC decided to maintain interest rates at the historic low of 0.5%.  Lloyds Banking Group has announced they are setting aside £3.2bn to cover compensation claims as a result of PPI mis-selling. One

The Bank of England (BoE) base rate has been set at 0.5% since March 2009, 25 consecutive months, and at the last Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting held on 7th April 2011, 6 out of the 9 member group voted to maintain this rate.  So how much longer will this rate be

In a week that saw Lord Hutton recommend sweeping changes to public sector pensions (read more), the Bank of England maintain base rates at 0.5% for another month (read more), the crisis in Libya deepen (and

Despite speculation that we might see a rise this month, the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) have chosen to keep interest rates at 0.5%. In February three members of the rate setting committee voted for a rise, but it seems that there are is still a clear divergence in

This week the banks have taken another beating.  A Which?Money investigation found widespread ignorance of the ISA rules amongst the banks. It would appear that they don’t know their onions when it comes to Cash ISAs. Read more…  As if that wasn’t enough, there’s the loss of the State