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Consumers `increasingly experiencing debt problems` Over-50s `better at managing credit card debt` New banking rules `may restrict access to loans` UK `must reduce consumer debt` 700k `on Debt Management Plans` Recession `could lead to financial problems for retirees` Charity sees increase in debt, mortgage and loan arrear enquiries Retirees` finances `may be damaged by rate cut` Consumers `aiming to reduce spending` People `increasingly turning to illegal loans` Children raised in credit crunch `may be better able to manage money` Many parents `pushed into debt by adult children` Young people `failing to protect themselves for debt repayments` Consumers in East Midlands `relying less on debt to fund lives` Plans set out to help people in debt PPI ban `could leave consumers without loan cover` Govt `must step in to stop debt addiction` Cash-strapped Brits `see fraud as more acceptable` People `should not rely on mortgage rescue plan` Consumers `to take out £3bn in debt consolidation loans by Easter`

Interest rates `may fall as low as 0.5% this year`

07/01/2009

The UK`s base rate of interest may fall to as low as 0.5 per cent by the end of 2009, an expert has claimed.

Arek Ohanissian, economist at the Centre for Economics and Business Research, said that the Bank of England (BoE) may be forced to implement such cuts in a bid to improve the health of the economy.

He said: "We are thinking that [it will be] taken down by the end of the year to [0.5 per cent]. The economy isn`t going to get any better between now and then so the Bank is going to need to do something."

Falls in the base rate may be welcomed by consumers with mortgages and other loans to pay off.

Also predicting a fall in interest rates was Simon Rubinsohn, chief economist at the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, who said that they would fall to one per cent by February but would stay at this level while the BoE focussed its efforts on boosting liquidity in the economy.

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