Brexit isn’t to blame for slowing UK growth. It’s more serious than that

The US economy is running at a sluggish pace, so there may be pressure for the Bank of England to lower interest rates even further this week

The last time the Bank of England cut interest rates was in March 2009 and the decision was, in the modern idiom, a bit of a no-brainer. Official figures released later that month showed unemployment rising above two million for the first time since 1997, and the economy was in freefall.

It was the nadir of the global slump and Threadneedle Street's monetary policy committee had no hesitation in reducing the cost of borrowing to 0.5%, comfortably lower than it had ever been in the history of the Bank, which stretches all the way back to 1694.

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