Last month only one member of the Monetary Policy Committee voted against staying interest rates rate at 4.75%. This month there were two holding out for a rise of a quarter point in base rate.

And part of their argument was that we are all expecting a rise soon anyway. "A modest rise in interest rates now would help to pre-empt inflationary pressures and an increase in interest rates this month would not be a major surprise," reported the minutes of this month's MPC meeting released before the holiday weekend.

Committee members continued to differ in the weights that they attached to the two key risks and in the amount of additional evidence that they would need to justify a rise in interest rates. The first key risk was to household spending in the near term. The pickup in January retail sales and signs that the housing market was stabilising perhaps meant that a sharp decline in household spending was less likely. But the available evidence suggested continuing uncertainty about the momentum in consumption growth. If consumer confidence was fragile, a rise in interest rates could dent it further.

The second key risk had concerned how rapidly consumer prices would respond to demand and cost pressures. There was still little evidence of inflationary pressures in the supply chain passing through into wages or consumer prices.

The two calling for a rise were Paul Tucker and Andrew Large, deputy governor responsible for financial stability. They argued that "there was already a degree of excess demand in the economy, which was apparent in indicators of capacity utilisation, producers’ pricing power and output price inflation."

Although there were doubts about the near-term strength of consumer spending, indicators of output growth remained robust, the two argued.

The rest of the committee however, was content to let the rate stay, mostly on the basis of insufficient evidence that the economy was moving in one direction or the other.

"The balance of risks to the inflation forecast remained sufficiently to the downside in the near term to justify maintaining the Bank’s repo rate at its current level," claimed these members.

"With inflation expectations remaining well anchored, the committee could afford to wait for more evidence to become available," reported the minutes,

However, some members continued to think that a rise in interest rates might be warranted in due course if the economy evolved in line with the February Inflation Report central projection.