“But its indicative of how badly the economy is doing, that interest rates have to rise at all.”
Yes Mikey, back to your ‘O’ Level Economics class for you.
Interest rates were reduced to their ridiculously low levels precisely because the economy was in Carey Street. The thinking was that allowing people and businesses access to stupidly cheap money would stimulate the economy and provide growth. I won’t go into the shortcomings of that theory but that was the idea.
Today’s stupendous rise has been made not because the economy is doing badly but precisely the opposite:
“The panel which sets interest rates, called the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), justified the rate increase by pointing to record-low unemployment, rising inflation and stronger global economic growth.
Mr Carney told the BBC that the Bank expected the UK economy to grow at about 1.7% for the next few years, which he said would require "about two more interest rate increases over the next three years".