Martin Lewis has said it seems "absolutely outrageous" that the rates savers are sitting on are lagging behind the rates being charged to borrowers. The Bank of England unexpectedly pushed up interest rates to 5% on Thursday, the highest rate in almost 15 years, as policymakers and the UK Government come under mounting pressure to control the cost of living crisis.
Speaking on ITV's Good Morning Britain (GMB) on Friday about the impact of rate hikes on mortgage holders, the consumer champion said: "None of this is accidental. The fact that mortgage borrowers are paying a lot more is the policy. Nobody needs to be under any uncertain terms that the idea that mortgage borrowers are being squeezed and their incomes are reducing is not an accidental by-product - it is absolutely deliberately why interest rates go up.”
He continued: “Interest rates are put up to try and take money out of the economy, so you put borrowing rates up so that borrowers have less money, and you want savings rates to go up so that people save more and they don't spend more. That's the theory behind this."
