UK Unemployment Falls Below 7%; BoE Forward Guidance In Question

The UK unemployment rate has fallen to the lowest level in five years, dropping just below the 7.0% threshold that the Bank of England had set for when it might consider raising interest rates, reports Richard Barley for The Wall Street Journal. But that doesn’t mean the BoE is eager to do so – it had assumed that 7% unemployment was still a few years away instead of just eight months when Bank of England governor Mark Carney (who was new to the job at the time) tied interest rate guidance to the unemployment rate last August.