Base Rate Held at 0.5%

Former_MSE_Guy

This thread is to discuss the following news story:

Base Rate held at 0.5%

Geoffo_M

Good news for mortgage payers - bad news for savers

Reaper

Geoffo_M wrote: »

Good news for mortgage payers - bad news for savers

Not necessarily. It could have gone down to 0.25% now the government has decided it is going to be a long recession afer all.

bagsacash

There are signes the economy is picking up, a reduction in interest rates would have indicated things are getting worse, much worse.

mr_fishbulb

bagsacash wrote: »

There are signes the economy is picking up

There are also suggestions that the economy will continue to be bad for a while yet

alared

The reason it was held at .5% is because to cut any more would have no effect,they`ve gone as far as they can.
The banks (still a law unto themselves) wouldn`t pass any cut on and with savers very unhappy with crap rates,they could hardly cut them further.
They are now relying on QE (printing money) but things can only get worse.
Sooner or later all this debt has to be paid for with higher taxes.
The longer an election is delayed the deeper it`ll get.
Labour are quite happy to rack up the debt because they wont be around to sort it out.

bagsacash

It will take time for the economy to rise from its bottom yes. But its already being said the bottom has been reached, if thats the case then there are two out comes, the economy will either flatlines for god knows how long or the economy will start growing.

nw_man

Geoffo_M wrote: »

Good news for mortgage payers - bad news for savers

Not for a lot of prudent mortgage payers who took out fixed rates so they could budget for their mortgage.

Good news for the lucky few who gambled on rate drops.

Hungerdunger

alared wrote: »

Labour are quite happy to rack up the debt because they wont be around to sort it out.

That's a bit of a silly statement isn't it? I'm sure that they will be doing all they can to get re-elected (if only so that Brown doesn't go down as one of the shortest serving Prime Ministers), and although the opinion polls aren't going their way at present, there's still time for them to recover some of the lost ground.

alared

There is no way on earth that this motley crew can ever be re-elected,look at the odds at the bookies.
They`ve had their run and managed to upset every section of the country.
They`ll certainly be trying to get re-elected but the voters wont be fooled again.
One year and counting,no chance.

GeorgeHowell

alared wrote: »

There is no way on earth that this motley crew can ever be re-elected,look at the odds at the bookies.
They`ve had their run and managed to upset every section of the country.
They`ll certainly be trying to get re-elected but the voters wont be fooled again.
One year and counting,no chance.

One would hope that you are right, and you probably are. But ever since universal suffrage have we had such a gullible, politically and economically ignorant, short-termist, and fickle electorate ? Sadly I don't think it's quite a foregone conclusion.