On November 20, 2024, London, England, the columns of the Royal Exchange, the bank in the City of London, the capital’s financial district, were decorated for Christmas.
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LONDON – Britain’s inflation rate rose to 2.6% in November, the Office for National Statistics said on Wednesday, marking the second consecutive month the headline figure has risen.
The data was in line with forecasts by economists polled by Reuters and was up from 2.3% in October.
Inflation hit a three-and-a-half-year low of 1.7% in September but is expected to rise in the coming months, in part due to regulators raising caps on energy prices this winter.
Persistent inflation in the services sector, the dominant part of the British economy, has led money markets to predict little chance of a rate cut by the Bank of England at its final meeting of the year on Thursday. Earlier this week, the ONS reported that the bets had been confirmed Normal wage growth strengthens It grew to 5.2% in the August-October period, up from 4.9% in the July-September period.
If the Bank of England keeps monetary policy unchanged in December, it will cut the key interest rate only twice by the end of the year, from 5.25% to 4.75%. At the same time, the European Central Bank has implemented four interest rate cuts and this month issued a firm intention to cut interest rates next year.
The Fed is widely expected to cut rates by a quarter of a percentage point at Wednesday’s meeting, bringing the total this year to a full percentage point. Some remain skeptical about whether the measure should be taken, given inflationary pressures.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated soon.
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