The news this week has been dominated by interest rate hikes across the West.
On Tuesday, the Royal Bank of Australia announced a 0.25% increase taking their rate to 2.8%. This was followed on Wednesday by the US Fed who raised their rates by 0.75% to 4%. Finally, yesterday the Bank of England followed the US and saw a rise of 0.75% taking the UK rate to 3%; the biggest raise in decades.
This has had a negative impact on Sterling which lost much of its gains from the previous week. This has also been impacted by the highly gloomy warnings from the BoE that we are in a recession that is going to be potentially two years in length.
We’re expecting a quieter week next week with US inflation data released Thursday and UK GDP figures on Friday.
The UK very much remains in a holding pattern until the new Chancellors formal Autumn Statement on 17th November.
