Shock announcement! Bank of England Interest Rates....

worldtraveller

...stay at a record low once again.

The BoE's Monetary Policy Committee, as expected, left its Bank Rate at 0.5%, where it has been since the depths of the financial crisis more than six years ago, and made no statement.

ManAtHome

Forward Guidance - we'll change rates when we get the call from the Fed...

Carl31

another sign the economy is still not improving, despite what we are told to the contrary

lisyloo

I think some aspects are improving e.g. More employment, however we do have other problems like Hugh personal debts which make it hard to put rates back up.
I'm not as cynical as you Carl although I love your point.

Generali

lisyloo wrote: »

I think some aspects are improving e.g. More employment, however we do have other problems like Hugh personal debts which make it hard to put rates back up.
I'm not as cynical as you Carl although I love your point.

The average adult has less than 3.5 grand in consumer debt. It's not so much in the grand scheme of things.

Average credit card debt is £2,311 per household.

http://themoneycharity.org.uk/money-statistics/

wymondham

BoE might have new people on the panel now as its gone on so long who maybe are not aware rates are in fact variable? Must be a very quiet meeting....

lisyloo

The average adult has less than 3.5 grand in consumer debt. It's not so much in the grand scheme of things.

The mean average might not be so bad, although I suspect there's a huge variation there with some old biddys having millions and others with massive mortgages.
There is a recognised debt problem (that people like the IMF have warned on) with massive mortgages.
If interest rates go up too fast then we could see significant numbers of personal and business bankruptcies and then the whole house of cards come down.
Then it doesn't matter what the old biddies have put away or what the average is.

I suspect average is extremely misleading.

michaels

Isn't most consumer debt at fixed rates or non-base rate impacted rates (personal loans and car finance tends to be fixed rate afaik and things like crdit cards tend to charge 18.9% or 34.9% or whatever rates set more by the competitive environment than the undelying base rate). Surely the biggest debyt item likely to be on a rate impacted by the base rate is mortgage borrowing - doe sthis count as 'consumer debt' in the 3.5k figure or is it in a seperate category of secured debt?

antrobus

michaels wrote: »

..... Surely the biggest debyt item likely to be on a rate impacted by the base rate is mortgage borrowing - doe sthis count as 'consumer debt' in the 3.5k figure or is it in a seperate category of secured debt?

It would be separate, I would guess.

At least BoE data on consumer lending distinguishes between 'Consumer Credit' (about £170bn) and 'Loans secured on dwellings' (about £1300bn), and I'd imagine most people just take those numbers and apply the divisor of their choice, to make whatever point they feel like making.

lisyloo

to make whatever point they feel like making.

I don't expect people to believe something jsut because I say it :-), but when Mark Carney and the IMF say our economy is exposed by the threat of huge mortgages then I expect that to carry some credibility.

Measures have already been brought in on how much banks can lend for certain criteria, so actions have already been taken.
I'm not making it up for somthing to do.

antrobus

lisyloo wrote: »

I don't expect people to believe something jsut because I say it :-), but when Mark Carney and the IMF say our economy is exposed by the threat of huge mortgages then I expect that to carry some credibility.

Measures have already been brought in on how much banks can lend for certain criteria, so actions have already been taken.
I'm not making it up for somthing to do.

I was talking specifically about Total Debt Statistics. I was not answering any post that you had made.