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Saturday, August 4, 2007

UK interest rates stay at 5.75%

UK interest rates stay at 5.75%

The Bank of England's interest rate setters have kept the cost of borrowing on hold at 5.75%.

The news will come as a relief to people with variable rate mortgages, who have had to cope with five rate rises in the past year.

The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) had been widely expected to keep rates on hold this month, as it waits to see the impact of the rises so far.

But many economists still predict that rates will go up to 6% later this year.

The rate-setters remain concerned about the rate of inflation.

The Consumer Prices Index fell back to 2.4% last month, but that is still above the government's 2% target.

A key factor in the delayed effect of the rate rises is that 1.3 million people took out fixed rate mortgages in 2005, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders, most of which would have been two-year deals.

"A substantial number of homeowners will see their mortgage bills rise markedly during the second half of the year as the cheap fixed rates that they took out two years ago expire," said Howard Archer from Global Insight.

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