Liam Halligan has called on the Bank of England to “hold fire” and resist the temptation to raise rates again.
The Bank’s policymakers, led by Governor Andrew Bailey, will convene on Thursday for an interest rate meeting where they will assess the impact of higher borrowing costs on the economy.
Interest rates currently sit at 5.25 per cent and economists expect the Monetary Policy Committee to hold firm.
It comes as it was revealed mortgage approvals fell to an eight-month low as higher interest rates continue to quell higher interest rates.
Liam Halligan has issued the Bank of England nine with a warning
GB NEWS
GB News’ Economics and Business Editor Liam Halligan warned it would be “nuts” to raise interest rates again after 14 rises in a row.
“Last month, the Bank of England held interest rates, I sincerely hope they hold them again on Thursday”, he said.
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“I personally think it would be nuts to raise interest rates again when you’ve had 14 rate rises.
“These things take time to work through the system. We’re not seeing the implications of those rate rises in the mortgage data, in the house price data.
“I appeal to the nine members of the Monetary Policy Committee, hold your fire.”
According to the Bank of England, 43,300 mortgages were approved last month, the lowest number since January.
Andrew Bailey will meet the Monetary Policy Committee to decide the Bank of England's next steps on interest rates
PARemortgaging is also declining amid high interest rates with just over 20,500 borrowers remortgaging last month, the lowest total since January 1999.
Liam Halligan added that housing is becoming an increasingly contentious issue in the political sphere, saying he believes it will “dominate” the discourse around the next general election.
“It seems the only people who can buy houses are kids who have parents that are wealthy enough”, he said.
“Unless you can get that deposit, then you can’t buy a home and you have to end up paying rent that ends up being more than you’d pay for a mortgage.
“This is a major, major problem and it will dominate the general election.”
Rising interest rates have seen profits at HSBC soar with the banking giant planning to hand billions more dollars to its shareholders.
HSBC said higher interest rates allow it to charge more to lend to people and businesses.
The banking giant saw its profits double to $7.7bn (£6.35bn) in the three months to September from the same period a year ago.
