World News TheFOXposts

The Bank of England is set to raise interest rates for the 14th time in a row to a fresh 15-year high and keep the door open for further increases as it tries to tamp down persistently high inflation LONDON -- The Bank of England is set to raise interest rates Thursday for the 14th time in a row to a fresh 15-year high and keep the door open for further increases in the months to come as it tries to tamp down persistently high i NFL ation. Most economists think the U.K. central bank will increase its benchmark rate by a quarter of a percentage point, to 5.25%. There had been fears, certainly among hard-pressed households and businesses, that the bank would repeat its outsized half-point increase from June. But figures last month showing that inflation fell more than anticipated to 7.9% eased the pressure to act as aggressively again. “With i NFL ation still four times the 2% target, the Bank of England has little choice but to raise the bank rate again and leave the door open to furt...

The European Central Bank has raised interest rates for the ninth straight time in its yearlong campaign to stamp out painfully high inflation FRANKFURT, Germany -- The European Central Bank raised interest rates for the ninth straight time Thursday in its yearlong campaign to stamp out painfully high inflation and kept the door open to further hikes despite increasing fears of recession. ECB President Christine Lagarde had all but promised the quarter-percentage point increase and said the bank's next moves would be determined by what the data — including i NFL ation and job numbers — will show. “We have an open mind as to what the decisions will be in September and in subsequent meetings,” she told reporters. “So we might hike and we might hold." Lagarde said that if the bank pauses, “it would not necessarily be for an extended period of time.” Decisions could vary from one meeting to the next, she said, but insisted that the ECB is “very strongly rooted in our determination...