No rate rise until 2019, economists say
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Most economists do not expect UK interest rates to rise until 2019 despite inflation remaining above target, according to a BBC snapshot survey.
Most of those surveyed think the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) will be reluctant to raise rates during Brexit negotiations.
The base rate has stood at a record low of 0.25% since August 2016.
That was the first cut since March 2009, when it was reduced to 0.5%.
Last week, one MPC member, Michael Saunders, said a "modest rise" in rates was needed to curb high inflation, which stood at 2.6% in July.
In June, three of the MPC's eight members voted for a rise - the first time since May 2011 that so many had wanted to tighten policy.
The same month the Bank's chief economist, Andy Haldane, also made a call for a rate rise this year.
However, Mark Carney, the Bank governor, said in his Mansion House speech in late June that "now is not yet the time" to start raising rates once more.
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Stuart Green, of Santander Global Corporate Banking, told the BBC he did not expect a rate hike to happen before 2019.
"We believe that policymakers will be reluctant to tighten monetary policy until greater clarity emerges around the UK's post-EU trading framework, and our expectation of declining inflation through 2018 should also reduce the pressure for an interest rate rise," he said.
Others expect it to be even longer, with economists at Morgan Stanley not expecting any movement until March 2019 at the earliest, with Andrew Goodwin at Oxford Economics suggesting it would not happen until the third quarter of that year.
Similarly, Fabrice Montagne, at Barclays, expects rates to stay on hold until "at least 2019".
But there are those who argue that the Bank will raise rates sooner. Howard Archer, chief economic adviser at the EY ITEM Club, said he had one increase, to 0.5%, pencilled in for late 2018, adding: "I would not be at all surprised if it was delayed until 2019."
Michael Lee, at Cambridge Econometrics, expects a rise to come in either the second or third quarter of next year as he thinks inflation will stay above the Bank's 2% target for the next two to three years.
Philip Rush, at Heteronomica, is more specific, settling on May 2018.
The one outlier is George Buckley at Nomura, who expects the MPC to jump in November.
Inflation
The BBC also asked the economists when they expect inflation to peak in the UK. Both Mr Rush and Mr Archer think it will hit 2.9% in October, with the latter predicting it will then start to fall back "as the impact of the sharp drop in sterling following the June 2016 Brexit vote increasingly wanes".
Several others, such as Mr Green, Mr Lee and Mr Goodwin, expect inflation to hit 3% in the final three months of the year before starting to retreat.
Morgan Stanley is more pessimistic, however, predicting a peak of 3.2% in Spring 2018.
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