Alan Clarke Quotes

"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."

"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."

"The coming three months of data will be dominated by energy prices given utility bill hikes in excess of 20 percent."

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

"The rise in output prices confirms signs... that firms are clawing back some pricing power."

"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,"

"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."