While the Bank of England cut rates to 3.75%, the dissenting voices on the committee raised a disturbing point about “lasting changes in wage and price-setting behaviour.” This academic phrase has a brutal real-world meaning: companies have learned that they can raise prices without losing customers, and they might not stop.
The hawks fear that the high-inflation era has broken the old psychology. In the past, companies fought to keep prices low. Now, they pass on every cost increase immediately. This “entrenched” behavior makes inflation sticky. It means that even if energy costs fall, your supermarket shop or broadband bill might not come down.
This structural change is why four members voted against the rate cut. They believe that only high interest rates can force companies to compete on price again. They worry that cutting rates now validates this new behavior, locking in a higher cost of living permanently.
If they are right, the 2% inflation target might be unreachable in the long term without a severe recession to “reset” the system. The majority of the MPC hopes that competition will return naturally as the economy slows.
For consumers, this is the catch-22. The rate cut helps with the mortgage, but it might mean that the price of everything else stays higher for longer. The “lasting change” is the legacy of the inflation crisis that no interest rate cut can easily erase.