Interest rate decision delayed, and TUC Congress postponed, as businesses, unions and investors mourns death of Queen Elizabeth
Just in: The Bank of England has delayed its next interest rate decision by a week, due to the death on Queen Elizabeth.
The UK’s central bank’s monetary policy committee had been due to meet next week to set interest rates, and to announce their decision on Thursday at noon.
The decision has now been rescheduled to the following Thursday.
The Bank says:
.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}“In light of the period of national mourning now being observed in the United Kingdom, the September 2022 meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee has been postponed for a period of one week.
“The Committee’s decision will be announced at 12 noon on 22 September.”
In light of the period of national mourning now being observed in the United Kingdom, the September 2022 meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee has been postponed for a period of one week. The Committee’s decision will be announced at 12 noon on 22 September.
Bank of England pushes next interest rate decision back a week to Sept 22.
Economists had been predicting the Bank would raise interest rates again, perhaps by 50 basis points (half a percent) or even 75bp as it tries to cool inflation.
Time to wrap up, after a day in which central bankers, investors, businesses and unions have paid their respects after the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
The Bank of England has postponed next week’s eagerly-anticipated interest rate decision until 22nd September, a rare move by the central bank.
The BoE said:
.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}“In light of the period of national mourning now being observed in the United Kingdom, the September 2022 meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee has been postponed for a period of one week.”
The TUC postponed its annual Congress in Brighton, which was due to start on Sunday, following the death of the Queen.
TUC spokesperson said:
.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}“The General Council sends our condolences to the King and the Royal Family on the death of the Queen, and recognises her many years of dedicated service to the country.
“As a mark of respect, we have decided to postpone Congress 2022 until later this autumn.”
Retailers Liberty, Selfridges and French Connection kept their stores closed today too, again as a mark of respect.
Our heartfelt sympathy and thoughts are with the Royal Family at this sad time. As a mark of respect, Liberty Store will be closed until Saturday 10th September at 10 am while we join the country in mourning. pic.twitter.com/2txIbogmgN
The mood in the City was subdued today; the usual flood of analyst views and research notes has slowed to a trickle.
Lloyd’s of London, the world’s biggest and oldest insurance market, plans to close its building in the City of London on the day of Queen Elizabeth’s funeral as a mark of respect.
Lloyds also rang its Lutine bell once on Thursday evening to honour the Queen’s passing, just after her death was announced by Buckingham Palace.
The London Stock Exchange is also likely to close on the day of the funeral. Today, though, it has traded as normal, with stocks rising in London in a global rally, as the US dollar has weakened. The FTSE 100 index is 1.6% higher in late trading.
The pound has gained almost a cent, to almost $1.16, but one analyst predicted it could fall to parity during King Charles’s reign.
Strikes by postal and rail workers have been cancelled after the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
Broadcasters, newspaper publishers, radio stations and social media platforms including Snapchat have instituted an unprecedented advertising blackout in response to the death of the Queen.
Elsewhere today….a group of leading economists have warned Ukraine’s government needs to overhaul its tax and spending policies or risk an economic crisis that could “cripple its ability to sustain the war effort”.
Online retailer Asos has said sales in August were weaker than expected and warned that full-year profits would be at the bottom end of its guidance, with the cost of living crisis hitting cash-strapped shoppers.
And European Central Bank policymakers have said interest rates across the eurozone must continue to ratchet upwards to tackle rapidly rising inflation, after the largest rise in ECB rates ever yesterday.
Our latest updates following the Queen’s death are here:
We’ll be back on Monday. GW
The FT reports that Fortnum & Mason stopped the clock at its Piccadilly store, while John Lewis has said the proceeds of flowers sold in its London stores would be passed to charities.
At @Fortnums, "As a sign of our deep respect, the flag at Piccadilly has been lowered to half-mast, and the hands on our façade clock have been stopped."
It really is Auden's "Stop all the clocks."
The Bank of England has delayed a decision over raising interest rates to tackle soaring inflation after the death of the Queen.
The central bank said its rate-setting monetary policy committee (MPC) would postpone its next meeting by a week as the UK observes a period of national mourning. The MPC had been due to meet on 15 September.
In a statement, Threadneedle Street said:
.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}“In light of the period of national mourning now being observed in the United Kingdom, the September 2022 meeting of the monetary policy committee has been postponed for a period of one week.
The committee’s decision will be announced at 12 noon on 22 September.”
The Bank was widely expected to raise interest rates by at least 0.5 percentage points, from the current level of 1.75%, in response to inflation hitting the highest levels since the early 1980s.
Since the central bank was granted independence to set interest rates by the then chancellor, Gordon Brown, in 1997, it has rarely held meetings outside a strictly planned schedule, which is drawn up at least a year in advance.
Several extra emergency meetings have been held in times of economic crises, including the 2008 financial crisis and the Covid pandemic, but delays are unusual.
More here:
Lloyd’s of London rang the Lutine bell once on Thursday evening to honour the Queen’s passing, just after her death was announced by Buckingham Palace.
The bell used to be rung on the arrival of news of an overdue ship, once for the ship’s loss and twice for her return, but more recently it has been rung to mark special occasions.
Chairman Bruce Carnegie-Brown also gave a speech on Thursday to express his condolences to the royal family. He said:
.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}“We were lucky to call her a friend and regular visitor to Lloyd’s – and I’m sure every one of us will cherish the memories we had together. Clearly, this loss comes at a time when hope is hard to find in the daily news cycle, which offers more cause for sadness than solace…
Today, we see a whole world united – not just in grief and respect, but in love, admiration and indebtedness. After all, she gave us so much to admire. And it is that shining role model we remember today, and will honour for years to come. In the meantime, our thoughts and prayers will remain with the Royal Family as they mourn.”
Broadcasters, newspaper publishers, radio stations and social media platforms including Snapchat have instituted an unprecedented advertising blackout in response to the death of the Queen, my colleague Mark Sweney writes:
ITV, Channel 4 and Sky are not running any ads on their main channels until at least 5am on Saturday, in accordance with a protocol agreement with Buckingham Palace, however their digital channels such as ITV2, 3 and 4 will continue to do so.
Commercial broadcasters and industry bodies will meet on Friday afternoon to decide whether the blackout should be extended across the weekend, with some advertisers being told they may face penalties if they want to continue the pause on advertising past the officially agreed deadline of Saturday morning.
Twitter has told media agencies, who buy ads on behalf of clients, that it will not run ads in the UK for 48 hours. Snapchat UK has a 24-hour ban on ads around all news and public service content.
Various advertising blackouts have been introduced by News UK, Reach – which owns the Mirror and the Daily Express national newspapers, as well as more than 100 regional titles including the Manchester Evening News – and the publishers of the Daily Mail and the Daily Telegraph.
Here’s the full story:
Lloyd’s of London plans to close its building on the day of Queen Elizabeth’s funeral as a mark of respect, a spokesperson for the commercial insurance market has said.
Chairman Bruce Carnegie-Brown and chief executive John Neal will also no longer attend the global reinsurance industry’s annual conference in Monte Carlo, the spokesperson said.
That conference runs from September 10th to 14th.
High street retailer French Connection said it will not trade today, PA Media reports.
It explained:
.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}“Following the sad news of the passing of Queen Elizabeth II, we will close the doors of all our French Connection stores on Friday September 9.
“Our thoughts are with the royal family at this time.”
.@Selfridges, End Clothing and French Connection are staying closed today as a mark of respect following the death of the Queen yesterday.#royalfamily #thequeen #queensdeath @FCUK #EndCloth… https://t.co/pFG9HptL6L pic.twitter.com/Gb35dVDzXo
As we covered earlier, Selfridges and Liberty are both keeping their stores closed today too.
Professor Danny Blanchflower, a former member of the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee, is very surprised by the delay to this month’s interest rate decision:
Wow
Snap reaction to the Bank’s decision:
Bank of England delays interest rate decision due on Thursday (now during official mourning period) by a week to Sep 22nd. At least a rise of 0.5% was expected… pic.twitter.com/gwcCSx60m1
Major step by @bankofengland – next week's decision on interest rates, widely expected to be another significant rise, pushed back by a week https://t.co/jGrJlhBUKj
Just in: The Bank of England has delayed its next interest rate decision by a week, due to the death on Queen Elizabeth.
The UK’s central bank’s monetary policy committee had been due to meet next week to set interest rates, and to announce their decision on Thursday at noon.
The decision has now been rescheduled to the following Thursday.
The Bank says:
.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}“In light of the period of national mourning now being observed in the United Kingdom, the September 2022 meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee has been postponed for a period of one week.
“The Committee’s decision will be announced at 12 noon on 22 September.”
In light of the period of national mourning now being observed in the United Kingdom, the September 2022 meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee has been postponed for a period of one week. The Committee’s decision will be announced at 12 noon on 22 September.
Bank of England pushes next interest rate decision back a week to Sept 22.
Economists had been predicting the Bank would raise interest rates again, perhaps by 50 basis points (half a percent) or even 75bp as it tries to cool inflation.
The TUC has postponed its annual Congress, following the death of the Queen.
TUC Congress 2022 – the annual decision-making body for the federation of trades unions – was due to begin on Sunday at The Brighton Centre, but will now be rescheduled for a later date.
A TUC spokesperson said:
.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}“The General Council sends our condolences to the King and the Royal Family on the death of the Queen, and recognises her many years of dedicated service to the country.
“As a mark of respect, we have decided to postpone Congress 2022 until later this autumn.”
We send our condolences to the King and the Royal Family on the death of HM the Queen.
As a mark of respect, we have decided to postpone Congress 2022, which was due to begin this Sunday, until later this autumn.