The pound slides as the Bank of England raises interest rates and warns of stagflation

The Bank of England raised UK interest rates and warned of soaring inflation and a collapse in economic growth. John Stepek explains what it means for the pound, the economy, and your money.

Andrew Bailey, governor of the Bank of England
Andrew Bailey, governor of the Bank of England - further interest rate rises to come
(Image credit: © Hollie Adams/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The Bank of England raised interest rates by a quarter point today – the UK’s bank rate is now sitting at 1%. Those are lofty heights that haven’t been seen since 2009.

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John Stepek

John Stepek is a senior reporter at Bloomberg News and a former editor of MoneyWeek magazine. He graduated from Strathclyde University with a degree in psychology in 1996 and has always been fascinated by the gap between the way the market works in theory and the way it works in practice, and by how our deep-rooted instincts work against our best interests as investors.

He started out in journalism by writing articles about the specific business challenges facing family firms. In 2003, he took a job on the finance desk of Teletext, where he spent two years covering the markets and breaking financial news.

His work has been published in Families in Business, Shares magazine, Spear's Magazine, The Sunday Times, and The Spectator among others. He has also appeared as an expert commentator on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, BBC Radio Scotland, Newsnight, Daily Politics and Bloomberg. His first book, on contrarian investing, The Sceptical Investor, was released in March 2019. You can follow John on Twitter at @john_stepek.