The BOE pushed rates 0.75 basic points higher than they needed to be rather than waiting for their previous rate increase's to fully play through on the economy. It takes a least 18 months for the true picture of interest rate rises or reductions to fully play through on the economy, so any reductions now will not effect the economy as the doom and gloom merchants have all but destroyed peoples confidence and the mind set is now firmly on fear of the future. Spending will fall and job's will be at risk so unless the BOE act's and act's quickly the recession being predicted by the gloom merchant's will become self forfilling .

Dave, Mold, Flintshire

The BOE previously set rates to keep RPIX at around 2.5%, they almost always kept inflation below that figure. RPIX is currently 3.2% & rising. Without the change to target CPI there would be no question of a further interest rate cut at this time & Brown would have to change his script.

Robert Williams, Halifax, England

The abject failure of the Fed, under its previous chairman, The Maestro, and its current one too, should give everyone reasons aplenty to stop fiddling with the interest rate. It does no good to the economy in general, even though it might help some players that painted themselves in a corner, so to say.

Those that "saved money for a rainy day" must pay to save the speculators' skins after having gambled unsuccessfully with other people's money.

Frankly, there is something intrinsically wrong with the financial structure of the Western world and the undeserved confidence we place in the 'obfuscating discipline' called economics.

Jaysonrex, Sao Paulo, Brazil

A tinkering cut in BoE rate with inflation looming will be the wrong signal to global markets. We will see further depreciation of the pound as liquid assets flee the UK. There will then be further imported inflation and a sterling crisis followed by political unrest. If this Government turns the BoE into a crony type Quango to help reduce the value of excessive public and private debt many of us will flee with our liquid assets to safer havens.

Steve Marchant, Torquay, UK

.The b.o.e mandate of controlling inflation will clearly be seen to be false if it cuts Rates further.As in america ,their hidden agenda is NO RECESSION.

Graham, Portugal,

Patrick Hoskins site house price flattening out as a reason to cut rates because without a 20 percent appreciation consumers will feel poorer. Not kidding ! What about the fact thats its probably pretty unsound for people to have an expecation like this in the first place and that we've had 10 years of uninterupted boom which has fundamentally affected the way the economy functions. One of the effects is that the supply of money has shot up without consequent rise in productive output of the economy - this is typically what feeds the devaluation of money - ie inflation.By seeking to reduce the cost of money once again at the first sign of long overdue consolidation in the economy and perhaps a longer term cleansing of the credit excesses built up you are only making the problem worse longer term. No BOE dont cut yet- stick to your mandate which is clear and unequivocal - inflation below 2percent. Thats the only reason to cut. We will all be better of longer term if you stick with this

franc petersen, london, u

A BoE cut will really have very little beneficial effect - banks will continue to hoard cash until the true value of losses due to their errors of judgement in sub prime bets are declared, and we are a long way from this point.

Furthermore as bad debts multiply through borrower defaults, lenders are likely to increase rather than decrease rates as they look to recover losses from those can afford to repay.

A small and temporary rise in the value of the FTSE will quickly evaporate as investors realise what a mess the UK economy is now in and the BoE have thrown in the towel on the battle against inflation.

The continuining fall in the value of steling will make imports ever more expensive, further increasing the CPI for a country which is overly reliant on imports.

Now is not the time to panic - further interest rate cuts cannot reasonably be viewed as anything other than this.

rick, sydney, australia