Have interest rates finally peaked – and what happens next? This is Money podcast

Have interest rates peaked?

After an inflation spike rudely woke them from their slumber, the Bank of England and the US Federal Reserve have shown us that raising interest rates can be a hard habit to break.

But fourteen consecutive interest rate hikes, up to an astonishing rise from 0.1 percent to 5.25 percent for the base rate, were suddenly halted by the Bank of England six weeks ago.

And on Thursday he did it again.

On both occasions the Fed had done the same on the other side of the Atlantic.

So, are we finally there? When does a lull become a peak? And when we reach the top of the interest rate cycle, what happens next?

In this episode of This is Money podcast, Georgie Frost, Helen Crane and Simon Lambert look at the decision to hold interest rates again and what this means for savers, mortgage providers and investors.

And what do Andrew Bailey’s Bank of England and Jay Powell’s Fed tell us about their respective economies – and how diverge are the paths of Britain and the US?

Also in this episode, Crane on the Case explores how a completely explainable and obvious mistake somehow led to a reader being hit with over £8,000 in fines and Transport for London refusing to budge… until we intervened.

Plus, some previous high-flying mutual funds have become cheap, so is now the time to invest? Simon looks for a moment.

And finally: what do the Premium Bonds and a pop quiz about number one hits from 2000 and 2008 have to do with each other?

Listen to the end if you want to know why you need to know that the UK number one in February 2008 was Duffy singing Mercy.