A Level Essays

Effects of Rising Interest Rates in UK.

Why do interest rates have a big impact on the UK economy?

Rising interest rates have various economic effects:

Increases the cost of borrowing. Interest payments on credit cards and loans are more expensive. Therefore this discourages people from borrowing and saving. People who already have loans will have less disposable income because they spend more on interest payments. Therefore other areas of consumption will fall.
Increase in mortgage interest payments. Related to the first point is the fact that interest payments on variable mortgages will increase. This will have a big impact on consumer spending. This is because a 0. 5% increase in interest rates can increase the cost of a £100,000 mortgage by £60 per month. This is a significant impact on personal disposable income.
Increased incentive to save rather than spend.
Higher interest rates increase the value of £ (due to hot money flows) this makes UK exports less competitive reducing exports and increasing imports. This has the effect of reducing Aggregate demand in the economy.
Rising interest rates affect both consumers and firms. Therefore the economy is likely to experience falls in consumption and investment.
Government debt interest payments increase. The UK currently pays over £23bn a year on its own national debt. Higher interest rates increase the cost of government interest payments. This could lead to higher taxes in the future.
Reduced Confidence. Interest rates have an effect on consumer and business confidence. A rise in interest rates discourages investment it makes firms and consumers less willing to take out risky investments and purchases.

Evaluation

Effects people in different ways. The effect of rising interest rates does not affect each consumer equally. Those consumers with large mortgages (often first time buyers in the 20s and 30s) will be disproportionately affected by rising interest rates. As a consequence to reduce inflation may require interest rates to rise to a level that cause real hardship to those with large mortgages. This makes monetary policy less effective as a macro economic tool.
Time lags. The effect of rising interest rates can often take up to 18 months to have an effect. For example if you have an investment project 50% completed you are likely to finish it off. However the higher interest rates may discourage starting a new project in the next year.
It depends upon other variables in the economy. At times a rise in interest rates may have less impact on reducing the growth of consumer spending. For example if house prices continue to rise very quickly people may feel that there is a real incentive to keep spending despite the rise in interest rates.
Real Interest Rate. It is worth bearing in mind that what is important is the real interest rate. The real interest rate is nominal interest rates minus inflation. Thus if interest rates rose from 5% to 6% but inflation rose from 2% to 5.5 %. This actually represents a cut in real interest rates from 3% (5-2) to 0.5% (6-5.5) Thus in this circumstance the rise in nominal interest rates actually represents expansionary monetary policy.