The global economic recovery appears to be gathering momentum, though the pattern is uneven. After slowing at the start of the year, growth in the United Kingdom has picked up and credit growth remains strong. Business surveys suggest the recovery is becoming more broad-based. Neither household spending nor the housing market have slowed by as much as the Committee expected. Underlying inflationary pressures are therefore likely to build gradually as demand strengthens and sterling's depreciation earlier this year feeds through. Against that background, the Committee judged that a modest increase of 0.25 percentage points in official interest rates was required to keep prospective RPIX inflation in line with the target of 2.5%.
Published on
06 November 2003
Press release