The Bank of England (BoE) has hiked interest rates from 4.5 percent to 5 percent, a more aggressive jump than previously expected. It’s the 13th consecutive rate increase in 18 months, and this level was last seen in April 2008 before the central bank began slashing rates during the financial crisis. The BoE was previously…

Stocks wobbled in morning trading on Wall Street Thursday as investors study moves by central banks to fight rising inflation. The S&P 500 rose 0.1 percent as of 10:20 a.m. Eastern and is hovering around the record high it reached last Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 178 points, or 0.5 percent, to 36,102…

BRISTOL, England—Bank of England chief economist Huw Pill said the weight of evidence was shifting towards a rise in interest rates next month but that he had not made a decision, and markets would do better to focus on the longer term. Speaking to reporters at an economics conference in Bristol, Pill also cautioned against…

LONDON—Financial market infrastructure and service providers no longer need to discuss paying dividends in advance with the Bank of England, it said on Thursday. The central bank had imposed the requirement in June last year, as part of a wider series of curbs on dividends aimed at ensuring firms had enough capital to see them…

LONDON—The Bank of England will deliver its most hotly awaited policy decision in years on Thursday, when it will either raise borrowing costs from an all-time low or say it is waiting to ensure the post-lockdown economy is ready for a rate hike. The British central bank is due to make its announcement at 1200…

SYDNEY—Share markets firmed on Thursday after the U.S. Federal Reserve engineered an orderly start to unwinding its massive stimulus programme, though doubts about the inflation outlook did push up longer-dated bond yields. “Remember that tapering is not tightening,” said Kerry Craig, global market strategist at J.P. Morgan Asset Management, noting the Fed’s balance sheet would…

LONDON—Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey sent a fresh signal on Sunday that the British central bank is gearing up to raise interest rates for the first time since the onset of the coronavirus crisis as inflation risks mount. Bailey said he continued to believe that the recent jump in inflation would be temporary, but…

LONDON—As inflationary pressures mount worldwide, money markets are charging ahead with pricing aggressive interest rate rises, in most cases betting that policy will be tightened far sooner and at a much faster pace than rate-setters are signalling. Energy prices at multi-year highs and relentless supply chain snarls have raised fears of a future inflation spike,…

LONDON—The British government is right to focus on driving up wages, business minister Kwasi Kwarteng said on Sunday, expressing confidence in the Bank of England’s ability to curb rising inflation. BoE governor Andrew Bailey has said he is concerned about inflation running above the bank’s target of 2.0 percent, describing the need to prevent rising…

LONDON—The Bank of England said inflation would rise above 4 percent later this year, and two policymakers called for an early end to the central bank’s quantitative easing programme due to rising price pressures. Policymakers voted 7–2 to stick with the 895 billion pound ($1.2 trillion) asset purchase target they set in November 2020, when…