Wednesday newspaper round-up: Bank of England, US credit rating, Shoplifters

The Bank of England should carry out an interest rate rise of a quarter of a percentage point tomorrow to keep control of stubbornly high inflation, The Times shadow monetary policy committee has argued. An overwhelming majority of the shadow MPC voted by 8-1 in favour of a 25-basis-point increase to the base rate this month, a step down from the rise of half a percentage point that the Bank was forced to carry out in June, when wage growth accelerated more than expected. The Bank rate is 5 per cent at present, the highest level since 2007. - Sunday Times

Rating agency Fitch downgraded the US government’s top credit rating on Tuesday, a move that drew an angry response from the White House and surprised investors. Fitch downgraded the United States to AA+ from AAA, citing fiscal deterioration over the next three years and repeated down-the-wire debt ceiling negotiations that threaten the government’s ability to pay its bills. It is the second major rating agency after Standard & Poor’s to strip the US of its triple-A rating. - Guardian

Shoplifters are overrunning retailers and avoiding public rebuke because politicians have accused supermarkets of profiteering, the chief executive of Co-op Food has said. Matt Hood said there has been a surge in crime at his stores and that he was “disappointed” people were defending looters after MPs criticised rip-off prices. Co-op, which runs 2,500 outlets, recently released figures showing police were not responding to more than 70pc of call-outs over serious crimes in its stores. - Guardian

The TUC has urged the Bank of England to call a halt to interest rate increases after warning that widespread job losses in recent months have left the UK “teetering on the brink of recession”. Employment had fallen in more than half of Britain’s 20 industrial sectors in the three months to June, the union body said as it predicted a fresh increase in the cost of borrowing would put tens of thousands more livelihoods at risk. - Guardian