Alan Clarke Quotes (19 Quotes)

This certainly lends support to the (Bank of England) hawks that suggest the official retail sales data may not be a fair representation of broader consumer demand in the first quarter of the year.

The worst news on UK inflation is yet to come. The probability of a further rate cut is clearly reducing.

As ever, the input price data is an energy story, and the fall in the sterling price of oil in the last month is coming through a little quicker than thought,

It's a healthy increase. It shows the retail sector is not on the brink of falling off a cliff. I still firmly believe the next move in interest rates is more likely to be up than down.

As the majority of the fraud was committed in prior periods, there was no impact on the company's recent interim result, or future results.

Speculation that we will see deep interest rates is overdone. In the context of the widely anticipated rate cut in August, it is not surprising that the Halifax figures rose. Mortgage approvals suggest we should soon get better news on house-price inflation.

Not even the most dovish of forecasters expects interest rates to be cut at Thursday's meeting.

The key message is housing market activity has improved significantly into the second half of this year and confirms the downside risks to growth from the housing market are vanishing.

This was another body blow for those still clinging on to the hope of lower interest rates.

The rise in equity withdrawal is consistent with the rebound in house price inflation. It shows spending growth is increasingly dependent on equity extraction on top of take home pay.

Services performance was encouraging especially given the glimmers of hope on the domestic demand side.

Overall, this reinforces signs that we have seen the worst news on UK activity.

We believe that with inflation rising rapidly, and concerns among the hawks that it will be harder to bring under control ... the door has been closed to further cuts.

For now, the 8-1 vote will provide ammunition to the doves that expect the next move to be a cut.

Since mid-2005 there have been concrete signs that the consumer is bouncing back and there is evidence from individual retailers as well as the key surveys that the critical Christmas period saw very robust retail spending.

Growth has come back and there's still some further improvement left in the pipeline. I think the sentiment on the rate-setting committee is also evolving. With the data continuing to improve we could see a 9-0 vote fairly soon.

With growth back to trend, housing market indicators trending higher and consumer spending substantially improved from the mid-2005 weak spot we continue to believe the next move in rates is up not down.

Clearly the departure of the most hawkish member of the committee suggests a risk of a marginally more dovish balance,

Mortgage approvals highlight a significant probability that we will see double-digit house price inflation this year. The MPC would do well to learn from last year's mistakes and react sooner rather than later.