The Bank of England raised interest rates by half a percentage point on Thursday, moderating the pace of increases while Britain braces for a prolonged recession with inflation eating away at household budgets.The central bank predicted that the British economy is already in a recession and that inflation has peaked. Consumer prices rose 10.7 percent in November from a year earlier, data published on Wednesday showed. That was down slightly from 11.1 percent in October, the highest annual rate since 1981.Even as Britain faces a challenging economic outlook, most of the bank’s nine-person rate-setting committee said that they expected more increases in interest rates will be needed to bring inflation back to the bank’s 2 percent target.The Bank of England started raising rates a year ago and over the course of nine consecutive policy meetings the bank has lifted rates from 0.1 percent to 3.5 percent, the highest since 2008. In Novem …
