Once again, just one member of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee voted against the decision to leave interest rates unchanged at 4.5%, their meeting minutes reveal.

In a two-day meeting that uncovered nothing to warrant a change, the members decided to report that, "the outlook was, on balance, for continued growth near trend and inflation close to target. In the light of those considerations, for most members it seemed appropriate to leave the repo rate unchanged."

Alan Clarke, an analyst with BNP Paribas, was reported as saying the MCP minutes for March were a case of "fence sitting at its finest."

Household spending had weakened after Christmas, but there was no evidence to support the cause. The potential for further energy price increases was cited, as was past increases in petrol prices, but the committee said, "…these explanations sat somewhat uncomfortably with developments in the housing market. The balance of new buyer inquiries had been positive for the eighth consecutive month; approvals for house purchase had been close to the peaks of late 2003/early 2004; and the sales-to-stock ratio had continued to tighten gradually."

Stephen Nickell was once again the only MPC member to vote for reducing rates to 4.25%. The fall in GDP growth below its historical trend for much of the past eighteen months, the recent rise in unemployment and the surveys of capacity utilisation, pointed to a degree of spare capacity in the economy, he thought.