BBC News 15 December 2022
- The Bank of England raises its base rate by 0.5 percentage points to 3.5% - the highest in 14 years
- The Bank expects the economy to shrink by 0.1% in the final quarter of the year, compared with previous expectations of a 0.3% fall
- Analysts now expect interest rates to peak at 4.5% next year before falling back to 3%
- A higher interest rate will be welcomed by savers, but have a knock-on effect for those with mortgages, credit card debt and bank loans
- Interest rates have been rising since last December in an effort to curb soaring prices - inflation has remained close to a 40-year high
- The European Central Bank - which runs the euro - has also increased interest rates by half a percentage point
