But City analysts said an array of recent poor economic data meant the MPC was now unlikely to risk raising official interest rates from their current level of 0.5%. Q&A What is the impact of an interest rate rise? While any reading above 50 points to growing manufacturing output, the rate of expansion was the weakest in 17 months. In March, the annual growth rate in consumer credit dropped from 9.4% to 8.6%.Liz Martins, UK economist at HSBC, said the window for a rate rise from the Bank had closed as a result of recent soft economic data. But the manufacturing PMI is for April, so it is the first piece of data we have for the second quarter.

Source: The Guardian May 01, 2018 12:03 UTC