Struggling Brexit Britain can barely afford this rise in rates | William Keegan

Ten years of austerity has put the UK in the doldrums: that fact, coupled with the referendum, means there is scarcely a need to dampen things down further

You can look at it two ways. After ten years of inertia, Bank rate has doubled. Or: after 10 years of inertia, Bank rate has been raised by one quarter of one per cent, to half of one per cent. Big deal!

Of course, for most businesses and individuals, the official rate is meaningless. It is the rate to which everything else is geared, but everything else is usually a lot higher than 0.25% or 0.5%. We read reports daily of how so many desperate borrowers find themselves struggling to pay the usurious interest rates associated with credit card debt.