Just under half of the public say interest rates are too high, according to the latest Bank of England survey, as its rate-setting committee meets to set the base rate next week.
The poll found that 42% of the public thought interest rates should “go down”, unchanged from May when the central bank’s Inflation Attitudes Survey last asked them.
It found that 28% thought interest rates should “stay where they are” up from 24% in May.
The Bank’s next Monetary Policy Committee meeting is on Thursday, with financial markets betting there is a 77% chance that the base rate is left on hold at 5%.
In August, the MPC cut rates from a 16-year high by 0.25% to 5%, the first rate cut in four years.
The central bank’s attitude survey also found that 55% of the public say that interest rates “on things such as mortgages, bank loans and savings” had risen over the past year, down from 64% in May.
While 11% of respondents thought that interest rates had fallen over the past 12 months, up from 6%.
Hargreaves Lansdown head of personal finance Sarah Coles says: “When asked to estimate what’s happening with savings and mortgage rates, they [the public] assume they have risen. That’s not a surprise.
“The Bank of England raised rates relentlessly for almost two years, and hit the headlines every time. The fact that the last rate hike was over a year ago is easily missed — unless you specifically keep an eye on it.”
Just under a third of the public, or 29%, expect inflation to rise over the next year from its current 2.2% rate, according to the latest Bank of England data. This is down from 34% in May.
However, 22% of the public expect rates to stay about the same over the next twelve months, down from 25% in May.
The UK’s next set of inflation figures will be published on Wednesday.
General prices ticked up to 2.2% in July, according to the last set of official statistics, from the 2% target it hit in May and June. Inflation hit 11.1% in October 2022.
The BoE forecasts inflation will hit 2.75% by the end of the year and remain above target all next year, due to fluctuating energy prices and other costs.
The public was also asked how the Bank of England is “doing its job to set interest rates to control inflation,” this balance was 4%, up from minus-4% in May.
The Bank of England’s survey was conducted by data group Ipsos through an online poll of 2,200 adults.
