The Bank of England (BOE), the central bank of the United Kingdom, held a Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting on December 18 (local time) and lowered the base interest rate by 0.25 percentage points to 3.75% per year.
This marks the sixth base rate cut since August of last year.
The 3.75% base rate is the lowest level in two years and ten months. The BOE previously raised the rate from 3.5% to 4.0% at the February 2023 MPC meeting.
Five MPC members voted in favor of the rate cut, while four supported keeping the rate unchanged.
At last month's MPC meeting, five members supported maintaining the rate, while four supported a 0.25 percentage point cut, resulting in a narrow decision to keep the rate unchanged.
In addition, the November Consumer Price Index (CPI) growth rate fell sharply to 3.2% per year from 3.6% in October, while the unemployment rate for August to October rose slightly to 5.1%. These factors increased expectations for a rate cut this month.
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