The Bank of England today cut interest rates from 5% to 4.5% in a coordinated worldwide move with five other central banks.
The move follows the Government’s £50 billion bailout of the banking industry.
The shock UK rate move had not been expected until Thursday.
The US Federal Reserve has cut rates from 2% to 1.5% and the European Central Bank from 4.25% to 3.75%.
The central banks of Canada, Switzerland and Sweden took similar action.
China also cut its rate by 27 basis points.
See also - £50 billion gamble to save City
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4 Comments
good news, let us hope interest rates fall by another1/2 % tomorrow
Why has the US got rates down to 1.5%
Yet we have4.5% you would expect our rates to be similar to the USA in this time of crisis
y mab because the usa economy is right up the duff and will take years to put right unlike gb ltd which may take 18 months to put right. what surprises me is that the chinese, arabs or indians have not waded in and bought some of our banks
with most mortgage rates cheaper by half a percent and the government loaning up tp 400,000,000,000 of our money to the banks, mortgages should be more available, and businesses will be free to lend from the banks again. the further upside is that we all become minor shareholders in some of our banks and in about 2 years time, say election time there will be quite a dividend to come, with all 3 political parties supporting it, gordon brown and alistair darling rule ok!!