Mark Carney delivered no surprises on his first outing as Bank of England governor, keeping the base rate and the quantitative easing threshold unchanged, according to an expert.
“We will not get a glimpse into his attitude until the minutes of the rate meeting are published in two weeks’ time, but perhaps the first real insight into his thoughts on the economy and base rates will come in next month’s inflation report, when he will be grilled by journalists for the first time since starting his new role. There are hopes that he will be more open about the general direction of travel for interest rates,” Simon Gammon, Managing Partner of Knight Frank Finance, said.
“In the meantime, mortgage lenders are offering some of the most attractive rates ever seen for fixed rates. For borrowers with a deposit or equity stake larger than 25%, there are five year fixed rate deals at around 2.8% available on the market. There may be disagreement about when rates will change, but there is little dispute about the upwards direction they will take, and the question is more how fast will they rise,” he added.
“This makes it the ideal time for borrowers to check if they have an opportunity to review their debt before interest rates rise. Now is a very prudent time to be reducing your exposure to such an increase, whether it be through achieving some certainty by remortgaging to a fixed rate deal, or by reducing your debt now before interest rates increase. The level of remortgage activity we have seen over the last few months suggests that homeowners are indeed choosing this as the time to review their finance options.”