Money markets ramp up bets on British interest rates falling below zero

LONDON (Reuters) – Money markets ramped up expectations of negative interest rates in the United Kingdom as policymakers debate further steps to support the struggling economy.

Futures contracts from December 2020 dipped into negative territory on Monday as traders raised bets that British benchmark interest rates would fall below zero.

The Bank of England is looking more urgently at options such as negative interest rates and buying riskier assets to prop up the country’s economy as it slides into a deep coronavirus-driven slump, the BoE’s chief economist was quoted as saying in the Telegraph newspaper over the weekend.

(Reporting by Saikat Chatterjee; Editing by Simon Jessop)