The IEA's Shadow Monetary Policy Committee voted by five votes to four to hold interest rates at their current level this month. Three SMPC members voted to raise Bank Rate by 0.25% on 7 June, and one wanted the shock therapy of a 0.5% increase, but five members voted for leaving rates unchanged, meaning that the ‘holds’ won the day. There was an overall bias to raise rates, however, with two of the holds believing that rates should rise in the near future. Indeed, some of those who wanted to raise rates by 0.25% in June wanted still higher rates in subsequent months.
The minutes of the meeting can be downloaded from the link above.
