UK interest rates left unchanged at 5% by Bank of England
by Flaminia Luck · LBCBy Flaminia Luck
UK interest rates have been left unchanged at 5% by the Bank of England.
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Economists had been expecting the base rate to be left unchanged after inflation remained at 2.2% in August.
This is just above the central bank's target level.
The pound strengthened after the Bank's decision to hold rates while the FTSE 100 Index pared back gains after surging ahead of the vote.
Sterling lifted 0.7% to 1.33 US dollars and was 0.3% higher at 1.19 euros.
The FTSE 100 stood 0.9% higher, up nearly 74 points at 8326.9, just after the decision, having at one stage risen 1.3% higher in late morning trading.
Eight of the nine Bank of England policymakers voted to keep interest rates unchanged on Thursday.
The Bank's governor Andrew Bailey, Sarah Breeden, Megan Greene, Clare Lombardelli, Catherine Mann, Huw Pill, Dave Ramsden and Alan Taylor voted in favour of maintaining rates.
Swati Dhingra voted to reduce the base rate by 0.25 percentage points, to 4.75%.
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CEO of Octane Capital, Jonathan Samuels, commented: “The mortgage sector has been responding well to the market certainty that followed the Bank of England’s initial decision to hold rates at 5.25% and this market sentiment has only improved further following the base rate reduction seen at the start of last month.
"As a result, we’re not only seeing the rates offered on many products reducing, but the range of products available is also growing, with this greater level of choice helping more buyers to enter the market.
"Today’s decision to hold interest rates at 5.00% is unlikely to dent this growing market positivity and we expect more buyers to be tempted back into the fold, while the overall health of the UK property market will continue to strengthen.”