Dear listener,

To the surprise of almost no-one, the Bank of England raised interest rates to 5%. But is this it? Or will they rise further? Two economists confer live on where rates are going. And we hear from a debt advisor who is worried about the effect on Britain's £1.3 trillion debt mountain.

If you put money in a bank or building society it is protected by a statutory compensation scheme which will pay up if the bank goes bust. But if you put money into a Christmas hamper it can disappear with impunity. Will the Christmas savings trade be regulated now that 150,000 Farepak customers have lost £40 million?

We hear that small businesses are still getting a bad deal six years after a government report told them to improve their service.

And small shareholders will get new rights to attend AGMs and vote under new laws passed this week. We explain how it will affect you.

More on all those stories on Money Box - Saturday at noon, Sunday at 9pm and on the web any time – and there's more information on our website about these items now.

Best wishes,

Paul Lewis

PS: Don't forget if you missed last week's programme you can still hear all the items or read the transcript on our website, where you can also have your say and do lots of other interesting things: http://www.bbc.co.uk/moneybox

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