fergus was, thank yom -- mike _ accelerate again. fergus was, thank you. -- mike fergus— accelerate again. fergus was, thank you. -- mike fergus walshk you. -- mike fergus walsh, thank. you. —— mike fergus walsh, thank you. the bank of england has announced an unexpected increase in its main interest rate, to a quarter of i%. the move surprised many economists, and will add to the costs of homeowners with tracker or standard variable rate mortgages. here's our economics correspondent, andy verity. with gas bills up by 28%, inflation is catching fire. electricity bills are up i9%, petrol�*s at a record high of £1.45.8 a litre, and goods prices are rising faster than they have in 30 years, up 6.5%. the bank of england has decided it is now time to act to try to stop inflation getting out of control. since the bank of england's monetary policy committee first slashed interest rates to emergency lows in the wake of the financial crisis, they've had well over 100 meetings and they've only raised interest rates in three of them. there's a straightforward reason why they're doing it now — they're predicting that inflation will get up to 6%