BUSINESS LIVE: Interest rate decision – will they rise to 5.5%? Retailer Next upgrades profit expectations

Hearings before select committees of parliamentarians rarely raise the roof.

However, the titanic, televised fight between former “King of the High Street” Sir Philip Green and former campaigning MP Frank Field over the fallout from the BHS collapse in 2016 was a formidable exception.

Both, in their own way, emerged victorious. Green, by deploying his quick wit, repartee, and business savvy, was able to show that the good and the great had let him down.

The FTSE 100 index opened at 7,731.65.

Yesterday it was revealed that inflation had fallen back to 6.7 per cent, a figure that just two years ago would have been considered shockingly high, but is now seen as something to be happy about.

Although the CPI reading is still a considerable number, it is an important step on the path back to the “old normal”, where both interest rates and wage increases are higher than inflation.

This is Money readers won’t need to be reminded that falling inflation doesn’t mean life is getting cheaper, just that it’s getting more expensive at a slightly slower rate, says Simon Lambert.

The pound fell to a ten-month low and stocks rallied as a surprise drop in inflation raised hopes that interest rates have already peaked.

In a report that took the city by surprise, the Office for National Statistics said inflation fell from 6.8 per cent in July to 6.7 per cent in August.

The figures shocked the financial sector and countered forecasts that inflation would rise to 7 percent or even higher.

Economists and business groups said it would be a mistake for officials meeting today to raise rates for the 15th consecutive time from 5.25 percent to a possible 5.5 percent.

And the financial markets, which until yesterday were firmly betting on another rise, saw the decision as on a knife’s edge. Experts at Goldman Sachs and other banks now expect the bank to keep rates unchanged.