Stuart Law, managing director of Assetz, commented: "The MPC should not be pressured into a quarter point rise in rates this week. As a country we have controlled rates at higher levels than the Eurozone over a long period, and adapted rates both upwards and downwards in a more timely manner in response to perceived inflationary pressures and other economic indicators.
"In doing so we have helped control inflation and although house price rises are under control, it is the fragile economy that is most at risk from following European Central Bank (ECB) rate rises when we already acted sufficiently some time ago. A rise in rates would damage consumer confidence and hamper our competitiveness. Eurozone and US rates have been rising quickly over recent months and the MPC should allow them to close the gap.
"It gets clearer by the day that significant immigration into our country is helping keep inflation under control without the need for excessive interest rate rises. We should let this new labour deliver productivity increases without great fear of wage rises to follow."
