Emergency interest rate cut by 0.5% |
The Bank of England has today cut the base rate by 0.5% – going from 5.0% to 4.5%. The Monetary Policy Committee held a special meeting today, ahead of the meeting that was planned for Thursday, to agree to the emergency rate cut. The cut was part of an agreement between the Bank of England, the Bank of Canada, the European Central Bank, the US Federal Reserve, Sveriges Riksbank (the Swiss National Bank) and the Bank of Japan to all cut interest rates to help reduce the strain in the financial markets.
The cut has been passed on to mortgage holders at some banks and building societies.
The last time an emergency rate cut was made was in September 2001.
