Bank of England · Official Bank Rate, the rate in force at the end of each month
What is the Bank of England's Bank Rate?
The Bank Rate was 3.75% in the month ended , down 0.25 percentage points from a year earlier.
Bank Rate of the Bank of England, end of month, not seasonally adjusted, each month
Shaded bands are US recessions as the National Bureau of Economic Research dates them: to , to , to , to , to , to , to .
Shaded bands are US recessions as the National Bureau of Economic Research dates them: to .
Bank Rate of the Bank of England, end of month, change from a year earlier, each month (ours)
Shaded bands are US recessions as the National Bureau of Economic Research dates them: to , to , to , to , to , to , to .
Shaded bands are US recessions as the National Bureau of Economic Research dates them: to .
Each point is one month of the series as the source publishes it, or a change worked out from those values (ours). The US recessions are shaded. Pointing at the chart shows the month and the value.
Select a line to follow
Inspect and compare dates
The newest month beside the one before it and the nearest ones a year, five and ten years earlier. The last ten years are in the table under "The numbers behind the chart".
| Measure | Latest | The month before | A year earlier | Five years earlier | Ten years earlier |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | |||||
| Bank Rate of the Bank of England, end of month | 3.75% | 3.75% | 4.00% | 0.10% | 0.25% |
| Change over a year | −0.25 pts | −0.25 pts | −1.00 pts | 0.00 pts | −0.25 pts |
The table scrolls sideways; the first column stays in place.
Observed .
Right now
The Bank Rate was 3.75% in October 2026, the lowest since January 2023.
Over a year it is down 0.25 percentage points (ours).
ChangeOurs
| Period | Then | Change |
|---|---|---|
| One month | 3.75%, the rate in | 0.00 percentage points |
| Three months | 3.75%, the rate in | 0.00 percentage points |
| Twelve months | 4.00%, the rate in | −0.25 percentage points |
| Five years | 0.10%, the rate in | +3.65 percentage points |
| Ten years | 0.25%, the rate in | +3.50 percentage points |
In historyOurs
The Bank Rate of 3.75% in was higher than in 175 of the 621 other months since , the same in 18 and lower in 428.
Highest since : 17.00% in . Lowest since : 0.10% in .
AverageOurs
Average since : 6.104% (ours, a plain mean of the 622 months).
Changes
258 changes of the Bank Rate are listed since . The newest, on , set it at 3.75%, down 0.25 percentage points (ours).
Understanding the Bank Rate
Where it stands today
The Bank Rate was 3.75% in October 2026.
What does the Bank Rate measure?
Bank Rate is the Bank of England's main interest rate: the rate it pays banks on the money they keep with it. It steers the rates that banks in the United Kingdom charge for loans and pay on savings. The Bank's Monetary Policy Committee decides it at meetings about eight times a year, and the Bank lists every change with its date and the rate from that day.
Read more
This page shows the rate in force at the end of each month, worked out from that list, which begins on 20 January 1975. The page of the United Kingdom on the central bank rates page shows the policy rate of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), a series that begins in 1946.
What 500metrics adds: the change over one month, three months, a year and five years, and the highest and lowest value since the series begins.
The numbers behind the chart
What was the Bank Rate in each month?The last ten years, 120 months, newest first; the chart and the file have every month since Jan 1975
| Month | Value | Change over a year |
|---|---|---|
| 3.75% | −0.25 pts | |
| 3.75% | −0.25 pts | |
| 3.75% | −0.25 pts | |
| 3.75% | −0.50 pts | |
| 3.75% | −0.50 pts | |
| 3.75% | −0.50 pts | |
| 3.75% | −0.75 pts | |
| 3.75% | −0.75 pts | |
| 3.75% | −0.75 pts | |
| 3.75% | −1.00 pts | |
| 3.75% | −1.00 pts | |
| 4.00% | −0.75 pts | |
| 4.00% | −1.00 pts | |
| 4.00% | −1.00 pts | |
| 4.00% | −1.00 pts | |
| 4.25% | −1.00 pts | |
| 4.25% | −1.00 pts | |
| 4.25% | −1.00 pts | |
| 4.50% | −0.75 pts | |
| 4.50% | −0.75 pts | |
| 4.50% | −0.75 pts | |
| 4.75% | −0.50 pts | |
| 4.75% | −0.50 pts | |
| 4.75% | −0.50 pts |
Show 96 more rows
| Month | Value | Change over a year |
|---|---|---|
| 5.00% | −0.25 pts | |
| 5.00% | −0.25 pts | |
| 5.00% | −0.25 pts | |
| 5.25% | +0.25 pts | |
| 5.25% | +0.25 pts | |
| 5.25% | +0.75 pts | |
| 5.25% | +1.00 pts | |
| 5.25% | +1.00 pts | |
| 5.25% | +1.25 pts | |
| 5.25% | +1.75 pts | |
| 5.25% | +1.75 pts | |
| 5.25% | +2.25 pts | |
| 5.25% | +3.00 pts | |
| 5.25% | +3.00 pts | |
| 5.25% | +3.50 pts | |
| 5.00% | +3.75 pts | |
| 5.00% | +3.75 pts | |
| 4.50% | +3.50 pts | |
| 4.25% | +3.50 pts | |
| 4.25% | +3.50 pts | |
| 4.00% | +3.50 pts | |
| 3.50% | +3.25 pts | |
| 3.50% | +3.25 pts | |
| 3.00% | +2.90 pts | |
| 2.25% | +2.15 pts | |
| 2.25% | +2.15 pts | |
| 1.75% | +1.65 pts | |
| 1.25% | +1.15 pts | |
| 1.25% | +1.15 pts | |
| 1.00% | +0.90 pts | |
| 0.75% | +0.65 pts | |
| 0.75% | +0.65 pts | |
| 0.50% | +0.40 pts | |
| 0.25% | +0.15 pts | |
| 0.25% | +0.15 pts | |
| 0.10% | 0.00 pts | |
| 0.10% | 0.00 pts | |
| 0.10% | 0.00 pts | |
| 0.10% | 0.00 pts | |
| 0.10% | 0.00 pts | |
| 0.10% | 0.00 pts | |
| 0.10% | 0.00 pts | |
| 0.10% | 0.00 pts | |
| 0.10% | 0.00 pts | |
| 0.10% | −0.65 pts | |
| 0.10% | −0.65 pts | |
| 0.10% | −0.65 pts | |
| 0.10% | −0.65 pts | |
| 0.10% | −0.65 pts | |
| 0.10% | −0.65 pts | |
| 0.10% | −0.65 pts | |
| 0.10% | −0.65 pts | |
| 0.10% | −0.65 pts | |
| 0.10% | −0.65 pts | |
| 0.10% | −0.65 pts | |
| 0.10% | −0.65 pts | |
| 0.75% | 0.00 pts | |
| 0.75% | 0.00 pts | |
| 0.75% | 0.00 pts | |
| 0.75% | 0.00 pts | |
| 0.75% | 0.00 pts | |
| 0.75% | 0.00 pts | |
| 0.75% | 0.00 pts | |
| 0.75% | +0.25 pts | |
| 0.75% | +0.25 pts | |
| 0.75% | +0.25 pts | |
| 0.75% | +0.25 pts | |
| 0.75% | +0.25 pts | |
| 0.75% | +0.25 pts | |
| 0.75% | +0.25 pts | |
| 0.75% | +0.25 pts | |
| 0.75% | +0.25 pts | |
| 0.75% | +0.50 pts | |
| 0.75% | +0.50 pts | |
| 0.75% | +0.50 pts | |
| 0.50% | +0.25 pts | |
| 0.50% | +0.25 pts | |
| 0.50% | +0.25 pts | |
| 0.50% | +0.25 pts | |
| 0.50% | +0.25 pts | |
| 0.50% | +0.25 pts | |
| 0.50% | +0.25 pts | |
| 0.50% | +0.25 pts | |
| 0.50% | +0.25 pts | |
| 0.25% | 0.00 pts | |
| 0.25% | 0.00 pts | |
| 0.25% | 0.00 pts | |
| 0.25% | −0.25 pts | |
| 0.25% | −0.25 pts | |
| 0.25% | −0.25 pts | |
| 0.25% | −0.25 pts | |
| 0.25% | −0.25 pts | |
| 0.25% | −0.25 pts | |
| 0.25% | −0.25 pts | |
| 0.25% | −0.25 pts | |
| 0.25% | −0.25 pts |
When was the Bank Rate changed?The newest 30 of 258 changes, newest first; the file has the rate at the end of every month
| Day | Rate from that day | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 3.75% | −0.25 pts | |
| 4.00% | −0.25 pts | |
| 4.25% | −0.25 pts | |
| 4.50% | −0.25 pts | |
| 4.75% | −0.25 pts | |
| 5.00% | −0.25 pts | |
| 5.25% | +0.25 pts | |
| 5.00% | +0.50 pts | |
| 4.50% | +0.25 pts | |
| 4.25% | +0.25 pts | |
| 4.00% | +0.50 pts | |
| 3.50% | +0.50 pts | |
| 3.00% | +0.75 pts | |
| 2.25% | +0.50 pts | |
| 1.75% | +0.50 pts | |
| 1.25% | +0.25 pts | |
| 1.00% | +0.25 pts | |
| 0.75% | +0.25 pts | |
| 0.50% | +0.25 pts | |
| 0.25% | +0.15 pts | |
| 0.10% | −0.15 pts | |
| 0.25% | −0.50 pts | |
| 0.75% | +0.25 pts | |
| 0.50% | +0.25 pts | |
| 0.25% | −0.25 pts | |
| 0.50% | −0.50 pts | |
| 1.00% | −0.50 pts | |
| 1.50% | −0.50 pts | |
| 2.00% | −1.00 pts | |
| 3.00% | −1.50 pts |
What do these figures leave out, and how are they cited?Limits, dates and how to cite
What this number cannot tell you
- The Bank lists the day of each change and the rate from that day. A month's value here is the rate in force on the last day of the month, so a rate that is changed and changed back inside one month does not show, and a month shows only after the Bank's list has been read in a later month.
- Before 3 August 2006 the Bank's official rate had other names, such as the minimum lending rate and the repo rate; the Bank's list shows it under one heading. The page of the United Kingdom on the central bank rates page gives the dates of the names.
- The Bank prints every rate to two decimal places. Some rates before May 1997 were set in sixteenths of a point and the Bank rounds them (12.6875 is printed 12.69), so a value of those years can differ from the BIS's by up to half of a hundredth of a point.
- The changes and the highest and lowest values are ours, worked out from the Bank's list, and the monthly values are ours, taken from the days of the changes; a change is in percentage points.
Observed . Checked .
How to cite this
Bank of England, Bank Rate. Contains Bank of England data licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0., Official Bank Rate, the rate in force at the end of each month, through October 2026. Compiled by 500metrics, "What is the Bank of England's Bank Rate?", https://500metrics.com/bank-of-england-bank-rate.
Can the data be downloaded?bank-of-england-bank-rate.csv
Download the full history as CSV: 622 rows, to , 11,608 bytes.
Our text and compilation: CC BY 4.0.
Recession dates from the National Bureau of Economic Research.
Page updated
Sources
Bank of England, Bank Rate. Contains Bank of England data licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. (source) Terms: Open Government Licence v3.0.