Lone hawk ceded to doves in last MPC vote

Bank of England deputy governor Mervyn King quietly dropped his hawkish outlook on the inflation threat earlier this month when he stopped voting for an increase in the bank's repo rate, currently at 4%. Twice before this year he had voted for an increase. The return to the fold indicates that the members of the Monetary Policy Committee, which sets the repo rate, are increasingly concerned with the conflicting indicators used to measure whether inflation is likely to increase. For example, the MPC found a contradiction between the appreciation of sterling, indicating r...