Companies based in serviced offices and other accommodation will be interested to hear that the Bank of England will not raise interest rates next week, according to an economic forecasting group.
The Ernst & Young ITEM Club believes that the likelihood of there being an increase in rates next week is a “little more than a zero”.
Andrew Goodwin, a senior economic advisor to the group, added that there were “genuine concerns about the weakness of activity and those concerns are likely to win out over any worries about inflation until we see some signs that momentum is beginning to build”.
He suggested that stronger signs of activity were expected over the second of 2011 and that any conversation focusing on further quantitative easing “would appear to be premature at this stage”.
The latest research from the Worldwide Property Group confidence tracker survey carried out last month revealed a 20 per cent drop in respondents expecting interest rates to rise, a figure which has previously trended upwards in the monthly survey since the start of the year.
The Ernst & Young ITEM Club is the only non-governmental economic forecasting group to use the HM Treasury model of the UK economy.
