£4.92 a day
I found the historic base rates for both the Bank of England and the European Central Bank since the latter’s creation on 1st January 1999 (see the last part of this posting).
It’s a fact that the Bank of England’s base rate has been higher than the ECB’s at any one time (between 0.25% and 3%, and on average 1.80%).
As far as I can make out, that amounts to more than £15,000 pounds since the ECB’s creation for a typical £100,000 mortgage, or exactly £4.92 a day.
Is it really worth that much money to keep the pound?
Here’s a list of the base rates:
| Date | BoE | ECB |
|---|---|---|
| 01/01/99 | 6.00 | 3.00 |
| 01/02/99 | 5.50 | 3.00 |
| 15/02/99 | 5.25 | 3.00 |
| 09/04/99 | 5.25 | 2.50 |
| 01/06/99 | 5.00 | 2.50 |
| 01/09/99 | 5.25 | 2.50 |
| 05/11/99 | 5.25 | 3.00 |
| 14/01/00 | 5.75 | 3.00 |
| 04/02/00 | 5.75 | 3.25 |
| 10/02/00 | 6.00 | 3.25 |
| 17/03/00 | 6.00 | 3.50 |
| 28/04/00 | 6.00 | 3.75 |
| 09/06/00 | 6.00 | 4.25 |
| 01/09/00 | 6.00 | 4.50 |
| 06/10/00 | 6.00 | 4.75 |
| 08/02/01 | 5.75 | 4.75 |
| 05/04/01 | 5.50 | 4.75 |
| 11/05/01 | 5.50 | 4.50 |
| 10/06/01 | 5.25 | 4.50 |
| 31/08/01 | 5.25 | 4.25 |
| 18/09/01 | 5.25 | 3.75 |
| 19/09/01 | 4.75 | 3.75 |
| 03/10/01 | 4.50 | 3.75 |
| 08/11/01 | 4.00 | 3.75 |
| 09/11/01 | 4.00 | 3.25 |
| 06/12/02 | 4.00 | 2.75 |
| 07/02/03 | 3.75 | 2.75 |
| 07/03/03 | 3.75 | 2.50 |
| 06/06/03 | 3.75 | 2.00 |
| 10/07/03 | 3.50 | 2.00 |
| 06/11/03 | 3.75 | 2.00 |
| 05/02/04 | 4.00 | 2.00 |
| 06/05/04 | 4.25 | 2.00 |
| 10/06/04 | 4.50 | 2.00 |
| 05/08/04 | 4.75 | 2.00 |
| 04/08/05 | 4.50 | 2.00 |
| 06/12/05 | 4.50 | 2.25 |
| 08/03/06 | 4.50 | 2.50 |
| 15/06/06 | 4.50 | 2.75 |
| 09/08/06 | 4.50 | 3.00 |
| 07/09/06 | 4.75 | 3.00 |
| 11/10/06 | 4.75 | 3.25 |
| 09/11/06 | 5.00 | 3.25 |
| 13/12/06 | 5.00 | 3.50 |
| 11/01/07 | 5.25 | 3.50 |
| 14/03/07 | 5.25 | 3.75 |
| 10/05/07 | 5.50 | 3.75 |
| 13/06/07 | 5.50 | 4.00 |
| 05/07/07 | 5.75 | 4.00 |