Base Rate Tracker
See what the current Bank of England base rate of interest is below. If you're worried about how the base rate might influence your mortgage or ability to get on the ladder, talk to Tembo. Voted UK's Best Mortgage Broker two years running, we're specialists in helping remortgagers and buyers increase their mortgage affordability.
What is the base rate?
The base rate is the rate of interest the Bank of England charges other lenders to borrow money. It's the single most important interest rate in the UK - in fact, sometimes it's just referred to as 'the interest rate'.
The base rate is used by other banks and building societies to set their own interest rates on loans and savings accounts. This is why the base rate rising or falling usually influences interest rates.
What is the current Bank of England base rate?
The Bank of England base rate today is 5.0%. The Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) who set the base rate voted to cut the base rate from 5.25% to 5.0% in their meeting on the 1st August 2024, the first cut in four years! They will next meet on Thursday 7th November 2024 to determine whether they will cut the base rate again, hold it at 5.0% or increase it again. Right now, money markets see an 85% chance of the base rate being cut again by 0.25% and are evenly split on whether another cut could come before the start of 2025.
Is the base rate likely to drop?
Whether the Bank of England decides to drop the base rate or not depends on what the UK economy is doing. At the moment, the base rate is not expected to go up. In fact it's expected to be cut to 4.75% at the next MPC meeting in November and could be cut again before the end of 2024.
The base rate is one of the Bank's most useful levers in controlling inflation. When the base rate goes up, this makes borrowing more expensive which can reduce how much people spend. If the population spend less, this means prices cannot rise as quickly, which in turn should reduce inflation. If inflation is still too high, then the Bank of England is likely to decide that the base rate should go up. If they feel inflation is getting under control, they may vote to keep the base rate the same or reduce it.
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Interest Rate Tracker
