Interest rates and monetary policy: Economic indicators
Monetary policy affects the amount of money in the economy and the costs of borrowing. Find the latest data on interest rates in the UK, US and Eurozone.
Economic indicators are quick-read summaries of the latest data focusing on different aspects of the UK economy. The full suite of indicators can be found on the main Economic Indicators page.
Major central banks around the world tightened monetary policy in response to rising inflation, initially caused by higher goods and energy prices, as well as bottlenecks in global supply chains. Since around 2023, rates have been cut.
UK (Bank of England)On 30 July, the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) announced it had left interest rates unchanged at 3.75%. The MPC vote was six members voting in favour of no change and three in favour of raising rates by 0.25 of a percentage point.
Rates were gradually cut, by 1.5 percentage points in total, from August 2024 to December 2025.
The MPC’s previous cycle of rate increases – peaking at 5.25% in August 2023 – came in response to high inflation. CPI inflation was 2.6% in June 2026, above the MPC’s target of 2%. Prior to the conflict in the Middle East, the Bank expected that it would fall to around 2% from April and stay close to 2% for the rest of 2026.
On 30 July, the Bank’s central projection showed CPI inflation peaking at around 3.2% in 2026 Q4. The MPC said that "risks to the inflation outlook [in this scenario] are tilted to the upside" but cautioned that events in the Middle East could change the outlook.
The results of the next scheduled MPC meeting will be announced on 17 September.
Source: Bank of England, Interest rates and Bank Rate [accessed 30 Jul 2026]
The MPC is reducing the size of its asset purchase – or quantitative easing, QE – programme from its peak value of £895bn to £492n on 22 July 2026. It is doing this by letting some of the government bonds it holds mature and by actively selling some of the bonds it holds to the market - this is called quantiative tightening (QT). At its September 2025 meeting, the MPC said said it planned to reduce the size of the assets it holds by a further £70 billion over the year to September 2026. It is doing this by selling some of the government bonds it owns.
QE consisted of the Bank creating new money electronically (as central bank reserves) and then using it to purchase financial assets, mostly government bonds. QT involves the Bank reducing the amount of the assets it had accumulated during QE.
In March 2020 the Bank introduced measures in response to Covid-19. Interest rates were cut to 0.1% - the lowest they have ever been. They remained at this level until December 2021. The MPC also expanded its quantitative easing (QE) programme by £450bn in 2020 and 2021, taking the total value of assets it owned to a peak of £895bn. For more, see section 4.2 of the Library briefing paper, Coronavirus: Economic impact.
United States (Federal Reserve)Interest rates were left unchanged at a range of 3.50% to 3.75% by the Fed at its policy meeting ending 29 July, amid economic uncertainty from the conflict in the Middle East and rising inflation during 2026. The Fed cut rates three times at the end of 2025.
The Fed ended its quantitative tightening (QT) policy on 1 December, which had reduced the amount of financial assets - like government bonds and mortgage-backed securities - that it owned. From 1 December it is reinvesting the proceeds from assets that mature. In addition, at its policy meeting ending 10 December, the Fed said it will be buying short-term government debt at up to $40 billion per month starting 12 December, in order to reduce volatility in short-term funding markets.
The Fed's next scheduled policy meeting ends on 16 September.
Responding to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Fed had by 15 March 2020 cut interest rates to close to 0% from 1.5%‑1.75% prior to the pandemic. On 23 March 2020, the Fed announced a wide range of measures designed to support the economy. This included buying debt from the government, corporations and purchasing other securities (such as those backed by mortgages and other assets). The Fed began to raise rates again in March 2022, taking them from 0-0.25% to a peak of 5.25-5.50% in July 2023.
Eurozone (European Central Bank)At its 23 July 2026 meeting the ECB left its main interest rates unchanged, with the deposit rate at 2.25%. This follows an increase in June of 0.25 of a percentage point, due to higher inflation pressures resulting from the conflict in the Middle East. The ECB cut rates eight times from June 2024 to June 2025, before leaving rates unchanged until June 2026.
The ECB is unwinding its two main quantitative easing programmes, including its pandemic-related QE programme.
The ECB's next scheduled policy meeting ends on 10 September.
The ECB launched its pandemic response on 12 March 2020 and expanded it significantly on 18 March and 4 June. The ECB has also made cheap loans available to banks to encourage them to lend to businesses.
In July 2022, the ECB announced the creation of a new bond purchase programme, the Transmission Protection Instrument (TPI). The TPI is designed to be used, if needed, to lower government borrowing costs in individual countries, if these costs are rising due to “unwarranted, disorderly market dynamics”.
Next updatesThis page is updated following monetary policy meetings. The next scheduled meetings are: