Bank of England warns a ‘Brexit’ will lead to sharp fall in pound

Polls affected short term interest rates

The Bank of England has made a stark warning the a Brexit would cause the British pound to sharply fall. The UK’s central bank made the warning as it announced that the interest rates would be kept at 0.5 per cent. It said that recent market behaviour showed that if the UK voted to leave the EU, the value of the pound would fall further, “perhaps sharply”, while households would delay spending causing lower demand and rising unemployment. The Bank of England noted that opinion polls have had an impact on short term interest rates and measures of UK bank funding. The Bank of England pointed to growing evidence that uncertainty about the referendum was leading to delays to major economic decisions that are costly to reverse.