Steve Smith looks at data from the Bank of England.
The UK base rate remains at 0.5% per annum following the Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee meeting on 5th June. We don’t know the voting until the minutes are published but the previous decision to hold at 0.5% on 7th/8th May was unanimous.
Base rate has now been at 0.5% for over 5 years but there is a lot of speculation about when UK interest rates will rise.
Looking at the trend of GBP LIBOR shows a steady increase in 1 year LIBOR during 2014 ending May at 0.955% per annum. 6 month GBP LIBOR increased in April to 0.665% per annum and has held that increase in May. 3 month GBP LIBOR closely matched the base rate until November 2013 since then it has hovered around 0.55% per annum
The trend appears to be clear; UK LIBOR rates bottomed out in 2013 and are now on the rise.
