The Bank of England (BoE) meeting next Thursday is all but certain to bring a third interest rate cut since August, taking the base rate down to 4.5 per cent. Of more interest will be the Bank's latest thinking about the months ahead: a growing number of analysts expect that economic weakness will mean the BoE ultimately cuts harder than Andrew Bailey and co. currently anticipate.
Highlighting weak retail sales data and Q4 GDP figures (due for release on 13 February) that could well be in negative territory, Goldman Sachs said this week it expects the base rate to drop to below 4 per cent by the end of 2025. As it stands, market pricing suggests there will be just two or three cuts this year.