From 5 to 5. 25 . And for the first time, its suggested that rates will stay higher for longer in an attempt to drive down stubborn inflation the rising cost of goods and services by reducing the amount of money we have to spend. Although todays increase means Borrowing Costs are at their highest level since 2008, it follows an era of unprecedented low rates. In previous decades, rates were much higher we can see here that in the 1980s rates got up to 18 before gradually falling. The bank today cut its forecast for economic growth, though it said the uk will avoid a recession. In a moment, well hearfrom savers, as well as families trying to cope with increasing costs, but first, heres our Chief Economics correspondent dharshini david. From cafe says customers may resist rate as higher mortgage and rent payments bite, to Estate Agents grappling with a sagging housing market, the hit from Interest Rates is clear. But for a very small minority, that impact is Life Changing. Minority, that
Global systems that we have in the oceans. It is important to say that these are sea Surface Temperatures. It is also about the time of year. So normally the oceans are at their hottest in march, but we are obviously now in august. And so scientists are worried about all of that time left until next march. There is also el nino which is less naturally occurring Climate Fluctuation which we have talked about it before. It happens every few years but it does drive up Ocean Temperatures. But we are only at the beginning of that now, it is quite weak and so as not to get stronger in the coming months, Scientists Say they fear these average temperatures will just carry they fear these average temperatures willjust carry on going up. What do scientists think is the cause . Scientists know that in the long term, Climate Change is driving up average temperatures in the oceans. They also think that a lot of the heat, or they know that a lot of the heat, or they know that a lot of the heat that
By International Law. I mean, of course we want them to do that. And that memo indicated not only for israel, but other countries in conflict that they would have 45 days to get that information turned over to the United States to secretary blinken, particularly and other countries not in conflict would have 180 days. This is not a remarkable or exceptional policy. Of course, we want our International Partners two abide by International Law and israel is, one, is the country in the world that has the most compliance with International Law that endeavors aggressively to notify that civilians who are in harms way when they are going to engage in a military action . They should get out of harms way provides pathways to do that. And what is the masto hamas uses their own people as civilian shields. So that they, because there, because the pain, the tragedy, and the killing is the point with hamas because as they said, just after october 7, that was the first attack and there would be a sec
But as the ukraine war drags on, western countries, especially the us, are starting to think that it might be better to lessen their dependence on china as well, which has made everything for us, from beach balls to Nuclear Power stations. Almost unnoticed by the outside world, President Biden has been pushing ahead with wide ranging plans to replace chinese goods with American Made ones. The bbc s economics editor, faisal islam, has been investigating the extent of this new America First policy. I was astounded by the scale and the speed of the transformation in terms of the deployment of public, government, Taxpayer Subsidy into Strategic Industries, particularly green industries. Theres so much money going in that its transforming the economic fabric of a whole belt of america. We used to talk about the rust belt. They are now talking about a battery belt. It sounds rather sort of roosevelt years, doesnt it . Yes, and theres some conscious echoes of that. Indeed, where i was in kent
the people who are affected most by high interest rates would tend to be younger households. older people, older house holders, are more likely to have paid off their mortgages they are mortgage free so they don t feel the impact of the increase in mortgage rates. you could spread the pain more broadly, so those households that, perhaps, aren t facing higher mortgage rates currently households that don t hold mortgages would potentially contribute towards the squeeze in demand by paying higher taxation. you could argue for a property tax, for example. yet there are also practical problems with using tax and spending policy to control inflation. history suggests it s hard to get the timing right, and when it comes to tax and spending political considerations often interfere unhelpfully. this is why the practice in recent decades has been to leave inflation control to the independent bank of england. however there is certainly more open thinking going on among respectab