Wednesday 5 December 2007

Cut the Interest Rate, Says Tesco

TIMESONLINE: Tesco has turned up the pressure on the Bank of England to cut interest rates tomorrow in an effort to revive consumer confidence in the run-up to Christmas and the new year.

Dismissing mounting fears about food price inflation as “hype”, Britain’s biggest supermarket said yesterday that it was time for the Bank to send worried shoppers a signal by bringing down the cost of borrowing.

Andrew Higginson, Tesco’s group finance director, said: “The problem is not inflation but consumer sentiment. It’s important that [the Bank of England] starts to show interest rates are going to come down.”

His comments came only a day after the British Retail Consortium had said that like-for-like sales growth across the high street was 1.2 per cent in November, well below the average for the past two years. Tesco demands a cut in interest rates to raise Christmas cheer on the high street >>> By Steve Hawkes

TIMESONLINE:
Rate cut urged to end the gloom By David Smith

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