Shropshire Chamber boss ‘surprised’ by interest rate rise
Shropshire Chamber of Commerce says it is "surprised" at the Bank of England's decision to raise interest rates.
Director of business Ruth Ross said: "Given the mounting uncertainty over the economic uncertainty being caused by the spread of the Omicron variant of Covid, we had thought it may remain unchanged.
"Raising the base rate to 0.25 per cent from the record low of 0.1 per cent will have little impact on most firms in isolation – but this will be seen as the first step in a longer-term series of increases."
The British Chamber of Commerce's head of economics Suren Thiru said policymakers were clearly facing a tricky trade-off between surging inflation and a stalling recovery.
"With the current inflationary spike mostly driven by global factors, higher interest rates will do little to curb further increases in inflation."
Shropshire Chamber said it was now 'more vital than ever' that the Government's Supply Chain Advisory Group and Industry Taskforce started to provide some practical solutions to the supply and labour shortages that are continuing to stoke inflationary pressures.
"With supply chains continuing to experience problems, rising prices are likely to continue to be an issue – in spite of this latest monetary policy response," Ruth said.
