CBI forecasts no Bank of England rate cuts until at least 2026

GDP growth just 0.8% in 2024

Elliot Gulliver-Needham
clock • 3 min read

Interest rates are not expected to be cut by the Bank of England until at least 2026, the Confederation of British Industry has forecast, even as growth remains stagnant.

In its latest economic forecasts published today (11 December), the body predicted GDP growth for the UK would average 0.6% this year, before growing 0.8% in 2024 and 1.6% in 2025. Meanwhile, the labour market will remain "relatively tight", it said, with unemployment peaking at 5% in mid-2025. The CBI's forecast was slightly more optimistic than the Office for Budget Responsibility's, which last month forecast GDP growth of 0.7% in 2024 and 1.4% in 2025, while expecting unemployment to peak at 4.6%. For the next two years, the CBI predicted the BoE's bank rate of 5.25% is expected to...

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