Job creation is concentrated in the service sector, ... High-growth areas such as financial services and information technology require skilled workers. |
Looking ahead, rising gas and electricity bills could keep inflation close to current levels for the next few months. But we expect further falls in core inflation and fading energy effects to push the headline rate well below target in the second half of the year. |
Retailers are playing a cat and mouse game, ... they try to build their margins back up, but then have to reverse price increases. |
The downturn in the High Street might be past its worst, but spending is still growing at pretty modest rates. |
The ECB may feel that the time is right to conclude that the risks to growth are now more equally balanced. Without a corresponding softening of the perceived upside risk to inflation, this would be seen as a strong signal that it is preparing to lift rates further. |
The MPC has acted early and aggressively, |
The MPC has acted early and aggressively. The soft landing scenario is still on track. |
The sharp pick-up in inflation pressures evident in December's data is likely to be temporary and should not concern the [Bank of England] too much. |
The stronger tone of recent data was clearly enough to prompt most members of the MPC to vote to keep interest rates on hold today, but we would not be surprised if the decision was rather closer than the markets seemed to think. |
There are no very significant indicators that the market is getting too expensive. |
To hit Mr Brown's forecast now, quarterly growth would have to average around 1.0 percent in the remaining three quarters which looks very unlikely. |
Today's cuts add a bit of pressure, ... but they're not the key factor. We're at dramatically different stages of the economic cycle (from Europe), and there are perfectly good reasons for the MPC to lower rates aggressively regardless of events on the Continent. |
We are not wholly convinced that this is the start of a period of stronger and more healthily balanced economic growth, however. |
We remain comfortable with our view that interest rates will fall further this year as output remains below trend and inflation falls back below its target. |
We still expect that the consumer slowdown will prompt more interest rate cuts, |