It’s easy to forget that five years ago the Bank of England Base Rate was at an all-time low of 0.1%, and only rose above 1% with the arrival of Liz Truss later in 2022. Something of which we often have to remind those who, when looking at how their investments have fared over the same period after yet another Trump Tweet has pushed markets in one direction or another, tell us ‘we could have been getting 4% a year if we’d left it all in the bank’. The Bank’s ‘remit’ is to keep inflation below 2.5%, the theory being that putting up interest rates stalls inflation as we can’t afford to buy stuff. As previously discussed, this doesn’t work when price rises are not the fault of our domestic supply and demand, oil and gas being the main cases-in-point. The markets, those groups of (mainly) blokes in front of screens, are assuming that (have ‘priced in’) rates will be cut a couple more times this year. And this, I’d say, will happen even if inflation doesn’t fall to that magic number, mainly to keep the whole economic show on the road, what with him over there still at it.
“Pensions minister: ‘we have created saving pots, but not a pension system’”
The OBR (Office of Budget Responsibility, as opposed to the OBI, often said to be housed in No.11) said this week that pensions were one of the biggest problems to be faced by this and future governments.
