IMF cautions on timing of UK rate cut

LONDON

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Tuesday said the Bank of England should be mindful over when to start cutting interest rates or risk harming an economy that just recently emerged from recession.

The warning came as the IMF ramped up its U.K. economic growth forecast but warned over "difficult" fiscal choices to stabilize debt, as beleaguered Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's Conservatives trail the main opposition Labour party in opinion polls before a general election this year.

The Bank of England (BoE) this month signaled a summer rate cut, after holding borrowing costs at a 16-year peak of 5.25 percent to further dampen price rises.

"As monetary policy reaches an inflection point, the timing and pace of rate cuts must carefully balance the risks of premature and delayed easing," the IMF cautioned yesterday in its latest outlook document.

Premature easing could risk further stoking inflation, but delayed easing could "stall or even reverse" economic recovery, the IMF said.

The BoE embarked on aggressive rate hikes to bring inflation down from a four-decade high above 11 percent in late 2022, when energy and food prices soared after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

U.K. annual inflation slowed in March to 3.2 percent, which was well above the BoE's 2-percent target. April data is due today.

Britain's gross domestic product is forecast to grow 0.7 percent this year, the IMF predicted, faster than the 0.5 percent it predicted in April.

It is then anticipated to expand by a solid 1.5 percent in 2025, according to the IMF.