Interest rate forecast

Economists: Bank unlikely to raise rates before 2023Economists believe the Bank of England (BoE) will wait until 2023 before raising rates from a record low, although they suggested elevated inflation and a strong economic recovery could see the Bank opt to increase rates sooner. At its August 5 meeting the BoE set out how it could tighten monetary policy but opted to continue with stimulus measures despite forecasts that inflation will hit double the Bank's 2% target by year-end. While the Bank said it would start reducing its stock of bonds when its policy rate was 0.50%, economists polled by Reuters said they believe the bank rate would reach 0.50% in 2023. While Britain's economy expanded by 4.8% in Q2 and is expected to grow 2.6% in Q3, economists suggest this would slow to 1.3% in Q4 and to 0.8% in the first quarter of 2022. On an annual basis, growth of 6.8% for 2021 and 5.4% for 2022 is expected - stronger than the 6.7% and 5.2% forecast in the previous poll.