Banking

Britain’s estate agents normally radiate optimism but they will be watching anxiously at noon next Thursday when the Bank of England is expected to announce the latest blow to a rapidly weakening property market.Crunch time has arrived for a sector that for years has appeared to defy gravity. Threadneedle Street’s monetary policy committee (MPC) is poised to raise official borrowing costs for a 10th meeting in a row, with mortgage approvals already running 30% below their pre-pandemic levels and house prices down by 4.3% from last August’s peak, according to...

The world’s three biggest central banks will deliver their first interest rate decisions of the year next week, with markets watching closely for signs of a shift towards less aggressive monetary tightening.Ratesetters at the Bank of England, US Federal Reserve and European Central Bank will make their decisions on Wednesday and Thursday and are expected to begin to diverge in their battles against inflation after a year of co-ordinated tightening.The ECB, which was the laggard in raising rates to contain inflation last year, has become the most hawkish of the...