UK Interest Rates Hike: Bank of England Policymakers Ready to Vote for Increase

One of the Bank of England's policymakers has suggested he is nearly ready to vote for higher interest rates.

David Miles, who sits on the Bank of England's rate-setting monetary policy committee, told The Times that he expects to vote for an increase in the base rate before his term as one of the nine policymakers ends in May 2015.

The Bank of England's key rate is at 0.5%, an all-time-low, where it has sat since 2009 as part of an ultra-loose monetary policy to keep the cost of credit down and banks lending to businesses and consumers while the economy was depressed.

But now the UK economy is in recovery mode. Bank of England forecasters predict 3% GDP growth in 2014 and the recovery is becoming more broadly based across manufacturing, business investment, household consumption and the housing market.

Miles said that UK growth has "consistently" come in stronger than had been forecast, which makes him warmer to the option of lifting interest rates.

Markets were expecting the central bank to hike its base rate at some point in mid-2015.

But Miles's comments that he will likely act before May 2015 come after a speech by Bank of England Governor Mark Carney in which he said a rise in rates "could happen sooner than markets currently expect".

When the base rate is increased, policymakers have said repeatedly that it will be gradual, so as to prevent any interest rate shocks.

Meanwhile, there are growing concerns about higher mortgage repayments from a base rate hike.