Final Call for Interest Rates Going into the New Year

On Thursday 14^th December 2023 at the final MPC (Monetary Policy Committee) of the year, after a vote of six to three, the Bank of England maintained the status quo and left interest rates unchanged holding steady at a 15 year high of 5.25%. However, the rhetoric remains unchanged as the Governor Mr Andrew Bailey advised “There is still a long way to go in the fight to control inflation”. 

The governor further acknowledged that despite financial markets expectations, he pushed back against an expected rate cut in May 2024, as the MPC warned they may tighten monetary policy if price pressures persist. The MPC were quick to point out that the two key indicators of price pressure which are service and pay inflation remain elevated, and the United Kingdom remains the only major economy where food price increases remain in double digits, with the UK’s inflation figure of 4.7% being the highest of the G7 countries.

Across the Atlantic Ocean in the United States, on Wednesday 13^th December 2023 the Federal reserve once again left interest rates unchanged. However, the Chairman Jerome Powell confirmed that the FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee) is still prepared to resume monetary tightening policies and increase interest rates should price pressures return. 

At the same time, in a more dovish stance,  the Federal Reserve leaned towards reversing their interest rate hike policies, by issuing forecasts that showed a number of rate cuts would be likely in 2024. However market experts pointed out that in November, increases in service-sector costs and in particular housing has kept inflation stubborn enough to counter any Federal Reserve interest rate cuts in the near future.

In Europe, the ECB (European Central Bank), along with their counterparts in the United Kingdom and the United States, kept interest rates on hold for the second meeting in succession. The deposit rate remains at a record high of 4%, even though inflation is heading south. The ECB confirmed that keeping interest rates high will make a substantial contribution to returning consumer price growth to the goal of 2% and they further advised that they will increase the speed of its exit from the pandemic era of stimulus which cost them Euros1.7 Trillion. 

The ECB will also increase the speed at which they are ending reinvestments under PEPP bond buying programme*, putting monetary policy tools into a tightening mode. Financial markets are expecting an interest rate cut in March 2024 despite Christine Lagardem, the ECB’s governors’, comments that policy rates will remain at sufficiently restrictive levels for as long as necessary. Markets noted with interest the wording “inflation is expected to remain high for too long” had disappeared from central bank rhetoric and was replaced with “inflation will gradually decline over the course of the next year”.

*PEPP Bond-Buying Programme – Otherwise known as the Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme was an ECB instigated response to the Covid-19 crisis. Initiated on the 20th March 2020, it is a temporary asset purchase programme of public and private sector securities. These purchases cover sovereign debt, covered bonds (an investment debt comprising of loans that are backed by a separate group of assets), asset-backed securities and commercial paper. 

Elsewhere and outside of the major central banks, Norway increased interest rates for what is expected to be the final time with Russia also raising their cost of borrowing. Meanwhile, Mexico, Pakistan, the Philippines, Switzerland and Taiwan all maintained the status quo by keeping interest rates unchanged whilst Brazil, Peru and Ukraine all cut their borrowing rates. 

At the end of 2023, whilst the Federal Reserve, the Bank of England and the ECB all kept interest rates unchanged, it appears that the Bank of England will have a different policy to the other two central banks going forward in 2024. Whilst the ECB remains hawkish with an exit from the pandemic stimulus, there is still an anticipation of an interest rate cut in March of next year. The Federal Reserve has been more forthcoming issuing forecasts of interest rate cuts in 2024, with the most hawkish of them all being the Bank of England who are sticking by their statement that interest rates will remain high for as long as deemed necessary. However, recent data showing the UK GDP results being worse than expected may push the Bank of England into reassessing their monetary policy for 2024 forcing them into a small interest rate cut.