Bank of England Raises Rates

The Bank of England has raised rates for the first time in two years."Against the background of firm growth, limited spare capacity, rapid growth of broad money and credit, and with inflation likely to remain above the target for some while, [policymakers] judged an increase of 0.25 percentage points ... was necessary to bring [consumer price index] inflation back to the target in the medium term," the Bank of England said. The Bank of England last raised rates in August 2004, a move it reversed in August 2005 by lowering them an equal amount (0.25%). The European Central Bank has also raised rates by that amount. The Bank of England and the ECB can be found online at http://www.bankofengland.co.uk and http://www.ecb.int.