The time may well have come for a rise in Bank Rate, a founding member of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) told BBC Radio 4 on Wednesday morning.

Deanne Julius told the broadcaster that: "The rise in the inflation rate to 1.9% in June should worry the MPC and that also indicates that there may not be so much slack in the economy. Certainly if I was still sitting on the Committee, I think the time for me to vote for a 25 bps increase in interest rates."

To take note of, she believes that lower average wages may be the result of a shift in the job market towards that sort of work, for example from employment in the financial services sector to more people working in lower-paid hospitality jobs.

Hence, she does not believe that there is "that much" slack left in the economy.

AB

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