How low can the Bank of England go? Six considerations for negative interest rates

Go alone for follow the crowd?

For three centuries, the Bank of England had never set its base rate below 2%.

But the economic convulsions of the past decade have driven the base rate to just above zero, and now the Bank is debating whether to follow the example of the eurozone, Japan and several other countries in setting a negative interest rate. What can we learn from the experience of these countries? Negative can mean pretty negative The European Central Bank (ECB) is the most obvious comparator for the Bank of England. It moved gingerly in setting negative interest rates and suggested several times that it would go no further. But over six years, it has brought its policy rate bit ...