Britain’s economy will need rate cuts sooner rather than later

Rate-setters at theBEBEMPC Bank of England (o) are an unusually rowdy bunch, at least in public. At the Federal Reserve, America’s central bank, virtually all its recent monetary-policy decisions have been unanimous. That has not happened at the o since interest rates began rising in late 2021. At their most recent meeting, on February 1st, a majority of the nine-member monetary-policy committee () opted to hold interest rates at 5.25%. But individual votes were cast to raise rates, to keep them flat and to cut them—the first such three-way split since the financial crisis.Despite the disagreements, the argument is moving in favour of the doves. No longer an , Britain continues to stand out for problematically weak growth. Elsewhere in the rich world, and to the puzzlement of many economists, it hasn’t taken much economic pain to bring inflation down. Britain looks less fortunate. As a result the case for starting to cut interest rates soon, if not quite yet, looks stronger than in just about any other big rich economy.