Consumers were ‘expecting’ rate rise
May 17, 2007 by admin
Filed under News, News-Banking
The latest interest rate rise is not going to have too much of an impact on consumers as most people were expecting it.
That is the opinion of Lloyds TSB and its Consumer Barometer which shows that pessimism over interest rates grew in April.
Only four per cent of those who responded to the bank’s survey were expecting interest rates to fall in the next year, with the vast majority anticipating a rise.
This, says Lloyds, should mean that most people will have taken the rise to 5.5 per cent in their stride.
“Pretty much everyone expected the base rate to rise last week,” revealed Trevor Williams, chief economist at Lloyds.
“For consumers, forewarned is forearmed and the impact is likely to be much less than if the rise came out of the blue.”
It means consumers should have planned ahead and will be able to keep up with repayments on loans, mortgages and credit cards.
Although there was also increased pessimism about increasing prices, the barometer also showed that people are optimistic about job security and opportunities.
