Long division: MPC members break ranks

Long division: The end of the MPC consensus

Even by the standards of its 2014 communications, the past month has been something of a muddle for ‘unreliable boyfriend' Mark Carney and the rest of the Monetary Policy Committee.

Early August suggestions the Bank was looking for wage increases before acting on interest rates were swiftly denied by Carney a few days later. Then, last week, the dovish tone of the August inflation report was confounded by the news two Monetary Policy Committee members had voted for a rate hike the previous week – the first such vote since July 2011. A charitable view would say this is partly down to misinterpretations of the MPC’s view. A counterpoint would be that it aptly demonstrates the difficulty in providing forward guidance as to the Bank’s thinking. Perhaps saying noth...