The Bank of England decided to raise interest rates suddenly to 0.25% from 0.10% at its meeting moments ago

The interest statement from the bank said that the committee voted 8-1 to increase interest rates and maintain the bank’s asset purchases of 895 billion pounds. The members of the bank confirmed that since the committee’s meeting in November, the omicron variable has appeared and spread within the United Kingdom, but the committee believes that it is unlikely to affect the growth expectations for the fourth quarter, but inflation rose more than expected and that the bank expects inflation to reach 6% levels before it returns to decline .

The committee expects that inflation will decline during the second half of next year, and that the bank is still targeting inflation levels of 2% in the long term, and according to the committee’s recommendations at today’s meeting, and in order to return inflation sustainably towards the target of 2%, raise interest rates. The committee will monitor the medium-term inflation outlook until the 2% inflation target is achieved sustainably.

The British pound is responding strongly and rising against the US dollar by more than 100 points so far, and is trading at 1.3362 levels, given that the current move was not priced or expected in the markets.