The Bank of England has increased its benchmark interest rate to 4.5% – the seventh rise since May 2022, when the base rate was just 1%. It is now at the highest level since 2008.
The European Central Bank (ECB) also increased its benchmark rate to 3.25% at its latest meeting in early May and is now nearing a high not seen since 2001. A few days before, the US Federal Reserve increased its rate from 5% to 5.25%, the highest level since mid-2007 and its 10th consecutive increase in just over a year.
Both central banks are nearing the end of their rate-tightening cycles as price pressures fall from a peak and the world anticipates a looming credit crisis.
