Bitstring , from the wonderful
person Paul Harris said
In message , Mark
writes
On Tue, 19 Jan 2010 13:13:06 +0000, Paul Harris

The rate for December was 2.9 against a City predicted rate of 2.6 this
is against the falling price of oil a year ago and the cut in VAT that
took place at that time. There will be some concern that the rate was
above prediction but they are unlikely to act at this time as a rise in
interest rates would be counter productive in other areas such as the
building industry. The target is 2% if it stays above that level or
increases then they may have to consider taking action.

I think it unlikely that interest rates will rise while quantative
easing is still continuing. That really would be crazy.

It would be but they have returned VAT to 17.5% at a time when they are
still trying to stimulate the economy.

And THAT increase hasn't even kicked thru into the inflation numbers yet
... the 2.9% was just the 'real' rate of 15% VAT vs 15% VAT, after nearly
a year of 15% VAT vs 17.5% VAT.

.. next month (and for the next years) we'll have 17.5% VAT vs 15% VAT,
which has to be worth at least another 1.5%-2% on inflation surely?

--
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