Charlie Bean, deputy governor of the Bank of England, has been seen as one of the swing voters on the Monetary Policy Committee. If he is one of the people who would have to vote for a rate rise, he does not seem like he is itching to pull the trigger any time soon.

In the speech he has just delivered in Northern Ireland, he thinks the signs of limited supply capacity and poor productivity is nothing more worrying than “puzzling”, he notes that there are persistent output losses after banking crises, is not too concerned about inflation or inflation expectations, but sounds most upset about the weakness in demand at the moment.

Worries about demand weakness with puzzlement about supply is not what constitutes a rate hiker. That rate rise might be on hold a bit longer. Read more