Mortgage rates ease as Bank of England’s bitter medicine shows signs of working

Fixed deals edge down as the City predicts that interest rates are nearing their peak and the UK economy cools

Several of the nation's biggest lenders cut rates on their fixed mortgage deals last week, in a sign of mounting expectations that the Bank of England may be nearing the end of an aggressive cycle of interest rate rises.

Next week, the Bank is expected to push up interest rates for a 14th consecutive time from 5% to 5.25%, with financial markets betting that they will peak at 5.75% by the end of the year. Many analysts expect this will mark the end of a cycle of interest rate rises that began in December 2021, giving the major lenders some confidence that previous fears of a 6.5% peak were overdone.