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 A recent survey has revealed that economists expect the UK economy to slow down over the course of 2008.
Carried out by Reuters, the poll also found that 46 of 53 economists expect the Bank of England's monetary policy committee (MPC) to cut interest rates from their current level of 5.75 per cent to 5.5 percentage points.
The news comes as minutes from the MPC meeting earlier this month show a seven-to-two vote in favour of keeping interest rates on hold.
MPC members John Gieve and David Banchflower both voted to reduce rates by 0.25 per cent.
Commenting on Reuters' poll, Trevor Williams of Lloyds TSB told the news agency: "UK growth [will] recover in 2009 but the slowdown will be rapid in 2008. This will lead to rate cuts."
He added that "the only question" was over whether this cut would be 0.5 per cent or 0.75 per cent.
If interests do fall, home buyers could take advantage of more competitive variable rate mortgages, as repayments will fall as a result.
The economists also predicted that inflation would fall to two per cent over the course of next year, before rising to 2.3 per cent in 2009.
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