Of those returning to work within two years after the birth of a child, an increasing majority are citing ‘financial reasons’ as their main reason for doing so. Other mothers returning to work cite ‘social interaction’ or to ‘maintain career and skills’ as their main reason.
To underpin confidence in the wake of the extraordinary uncertainty generated by the terrorist acts, we took the exceptional step of lowering our key policy interest rate by 1/2 of a percentage point on 17 September, outside our regular fixed announcement schedule.