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Strategies & Market Trends : Booms, Busts, and Recoveries -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Louis V. Lambrecht who wrote (45366)	1/29/2004 3:41:54 PM
From: maceng2	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 74559

Move on OK. I cannot believe the BOE is going to raise interest rates unless there is a international agreement to do so for all currencies. The UK export market, showing signs of recovery, would just get whacked. ananova.com Shoppers' confidence fuels interest rate speculation Speculation that interest rates will rise next month has grown after a survey showed consumer confidence increased in the New Year. Shoppers took advantage of the January sales as optimism strengthened about prospects for 2004, according to the Consumer Confidence Barometer from research group Martin Hamblin. The barometer's headline index of consumer confidence stood at zero in January, up from minus five in December. Economists said the study will increase pressure on the Bank of England to raise interest rates by at least 0.25% next month. John Butler of HSBC said the figures and other recent studies indicated that consumers remain relatively upbeat. They also showed that the 0.25% rise in rates to 3.75% in November had had little impact on consumer confidence or households' appetite for debt, he said. The five-point rise in the index left it three points higher than in the same month last year and made January the first period in which it has been out of negative territory since November 2002. However, it failed to top the five-year average of zero. Director of Martin Hamblin, Roger Wright, said: "Consumers are considering now to be a good time to make major purchases during the traditional period of the high street sales. Some New Year optimism may be playing a part."