Along with house prices, interest rates are very popular topic of conversation in this country.

Currently it looks like they might be held at 4.75% till the end of the year, but recently many have suggested that they may drop. Only a month ago, most were expecting one more rise in 2005.

The best product I have found to gain exposure to the future of interest rates is at www.spreadfair.com.

What about inflation though? The remit of the BOE is no. 1 to keep inflation under control. If oil prices take off again this it could feed through to wage demands and consumer prices.

tallsiii, you are correct in your statement that the remit of the Bank of England is to keep inflation under control, but I somewhat doubt if their efforts will be contained to this field. Already the talk is about UK industry requiring lower interest rates when the Monetary policy Committee are about to make their decision, not the original remit but one that is creeping to the forefront.
Any boost to industry should be given by taxation concessions by the government but that of course would mean the government taking some of the responsibility back upon themselves.

Just another simle question. Labour et al. is proposing to sell off "unneeded" (funny looking word<-) land for building hosues. Land at the moment belonging to NHS, Etc. Are they selling off the silver again to bolster their accounts and if so approximately how much revenue is being raised. And to whon are the sales.

Shares in Barclays have fallen by more than 4% after the bank said consumer bad debts were worse than expected.
The comment came as Barclays issued a trading statement saying it had seen good profits growth in the January to March quarter.

Barclays said the increase in bad debt was largest at its Barclaycard credit card subsidiary. The bank is the UK's biggest credit card lender.

It previously said defaulted personal debts would reach 1.4bn this year.

This compares with the 1.1bn of bad debts Barclays reported in 2004.


Barclays warning on bad consumer debt comes a week after rival HSBC also said UK consumer lending quality was worsening.

Revenue at Barclays' UK retail bank was "broadly flat" in the first quarter because of weaker mortgage and retail savings income, the bank said.

"It [Barclay's trading update] all looks fine with the exception of their statement about UK consumer credit," said WestLB analyst James Hamilton.

Shares in Barclays were down 4.18% to 527p by 0840 GMT on Thursday.

You may be right optomistic, the lowering of rates does seem to be on the agenda again.

We the insolvency rate increasing recently does that mean they have to raise rates to discourage people from taking on more debt, or does it mean they have to lower them to help people manage the debts they already have???

I refer my right honourable friends to post number 2 in May of this year!
Looking like a pretty good forecast. Wish I could take credit for it, but the LIBOR rate is governed by the guys who really know whats happening and they forecast it, not really me!!
Alan