The MPC has acted early and aggressively.

Job creation is concentrated in the service sector, ... High-growth areas such as financial services and information technology require skilled workers.

I don't think he can put off the inevitable. Sometime in the next two years he will have to raise taxes but he won't want to leave it too late in the political cycle.

We still expect that the consumer slowdown will prompt more interest rate cuts.

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.

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 downturn in the High Street might be past its worst, but spending is still growing at pretty modest rates.

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.

Retailers are playing a cat and mouse game, ... they try to build their margins back up, but then have to reverse price increases.