Overview

• Swati Dhingra publicly urged further easing and dissented at this month's meeting in favor of cutting the Bank Rate to 3.75%.
• She argues the services inflation gap with the euro area is concentrated in administered or indexed items such as water bills and bus fares that respond weakly to monetary policy.
• Her analysis says wage growth explains far less of price rises in administered services than in market-based services.
• She contends much of the food-price gap reflects global shocks to a few products, citing cocoa-driven increases in chocolate costs.
• The Bank Rate is about 4% after five cuts from a 5.25% peak, while the MPC stays split and the OECD now sees UK inflation near 3.5%, the highest in the G20.