BOE pushes back rate move by a week
LONDON: The death of Queen Elizabeth has stilled the business of state in Britain at a time when the government, Bank of England and companies are batling to contain inflation and mitigate a deep economic crisis.
New Prime Minister Liz Truss - appointed by the queen on Tuesday, just two days before she died - wasted no time to set out one of Britain’s biggest ever economic packages on Thursday, just as news emerged of the queen’s deteriorating health.
But since then a period of national mourning has been declared that will run until the funeral, with parliamentary business suspended for 13 days and the Bank of England delaying a critical interest rate decision by a week.
Across London, corporate and diplomatic meetings were cancelled while some major stores and theme parks shut as organisations struggled to find the right response to the death of a monarch for the first time in Britain for 70 years.
Premier League soccer matches were postponed, the second day of the men’s cricket test match was suspended, while a PGA golf event was shortened ater it cancelled play on Friday then could not guarantee it would have the staff to continue on Monday. The 96-year-old queen, Britain’s longest-reigning monarch, died on Thursday, at a time of already huge political and economic upheaval with the economy at risk of going into a lengthy recession later this year.
The Bank of England had been expected to raise interest rates next week to tackle inflation that hit 10.1% in July, a 40-year high and the highest of any leading rich nation.
Truss’s support package, set to cost more than 100 billion pounds, was designed to protect households and businesses from the surging energy prices that have turbo-charged inflation. The measure had been delayed by a two-month hiatus while the governing Conservative Party elected a new leader.