Bank of England warns inflation could breach 8%, raises rates, condemns Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – business live | Business

That outlook is now endorsed as roughly credible by the Bank of England, the same people who thought as recently as last month that the peak would arrive soon and be 7.25%.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a fresh round of soaring energy prices, and more supply chain disruption have up-ended month-old assumptions that already looked wobbly. Thus we are in a land where inflation could end up being “several percentage points higher” than the Bank expected only last month.

In the circumstances, the mini-surprise is that nobody on the Bank’s nine-strong panel wanted heavier action than a quarter-point rise in interest rates to 0.75%. Indeed, the deputy governor, Jon Cunliffe, preferred to stick at 0.5%. This was a very cautious version of an interest rate hike….