Although still in the minority, a handful of leading experts believe the Bank will come under pressure to raise rates towards the end of 2013 – 18 months earlier than markets are predicting. Simon Ward, chief UK economist at Henderson Global Investors, said rates will rise from their current record low of 0.5pc to 1pc in the second half of the year. Andrew Lilico, at Europe Economics, said he hopes “we finally get a rise”, and Andrew Sentance, a former member of the Monetary Policy Committee, said that inflation should be brought more firmly under control and interest rate rises should be “on the agenda”. Mr Ward has ... (full story)