Traders are betting that one of Mark Carney’s last acts as Bank of England governor will be an interest-rate cut.

Market pricing shows a 25-basis-point reduction in rates is almost fully priced in for the BOE’s January 2020 meeting -- due to be held on Carney’s penultimate day in office. That would leave the key interest rate at 0.5 per cent  -- the same level it was when the Canadian took up the job in 2013.

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Investors’ bets on lower borrowing costs have increased amid heightened concern that new prime minister Boris Johnson will take the U.K. out of the European Union without a deal in October. They’ve accelerated further in recent days as central banks around the world, including the U.S, Federal Reserve, lowered rates in response to trade tensions and a gloomier economic outlook.

The market pricing is at odds with the BOE’s official guidance, based on a smooth Brexit, that says limited and gradual hikes are needed. In case there isn’t a deal, policy makers have stressed that the BOE’s response won’t be automatic and could see rates moves in either direction, although a number of officials have indicated a bias for lower borrowing costs in such a scenario.