Job creation is concentrated in the service sector, ... High-growth areas such as financial services and information technology require skilled workers.
I think in the near term there will be more upward pressure,
Italy is going to remain at the back of the performance tables. We should see a pick-up in growth this year, but it is coming off a very low base. It is a cyclical recovery rather than any kind of real structural improvement.
January's UK retail sales figures confirm the evidence from the surveys that the pick-up in spending growth over Christmas was short-lived.
Retailers are playing a cat and mouse game, ... they try to build their margins back up, but then have to reverse price increases.
Looking ahead, rising gas and electricity bills could keep inflation close to current levels for the next few months. But we expect further falls in core inflation and fading energy effects to push the headline rate well below target in the second half of the year.
We are not wholly convinced that this is the start of a period of stronger and more healthily balanced economic growth, however.
We remain comfortable with our view that interest rates will fall further this year as output remains below trend and inflation falls back below its target.
We still expect that the consumer slowdown will prompt more interest rate cuts,
Today's cuts add a bit of pressure, ... but they're not the key factor. We're at dramatically different stages of the economic cycle (from Europe), and there are perfectly good reasons for the MPC to lower rates aggressively regardless of events on the Continent.
There are no very significant indicators that the market is getting too expensive.
While the stronger-than-expected rise in British GDP put a further dent in the prospects of an interest rate cut in February, we still expect the combination of sluggish growth and falling inflation this year to prompt a modest loosening of monetary policy.
To hit Mr Brown's forecast now, quarterly growth would have to average around 1.0 percent in the remaining three quarters which looks very unlikely.
It would have been better to have left the growth forecast unchanged, but that would have lowered the inflation forecast to below its target. They are having to work hard not to have to cut interest rates.
The stronger tone of recent data was clearly enough to prompt most members of the MPC to vote to keep interest rates on hold today, but we would not be surprised if the decision was rather closer than the markets seemed to think.
The MPC has acted early and aggressively. The soft landing scenario is still on track.
A dovish Inflation Report tomorrow and soft retail sales on Thursday could open the door to a March rate cut.
A very weak report, casting doubt on the Monetary Policy Committee's assumption that household spending will grow in line with its long-term average over the next three years and boosting the chances of a rate cut.
August's UK public finances figures are, for once, rather better than expected.
It just seems to me that although the stock market has already risen quite strongly, if you look at how quickly the macroeconomic indicators have risen, there is still some scope for the market to rise even further.
Indeed, it may only have been a reluctance to surprise the markets that stopped the committee from cutting rates (last week).
Interest rates are very likely to remain on hold for a seventh consecutive month in March, it being the only month in which the MPC has never changed rates in either direction since taking control in 1997.
I don't think he can put off the inevitable. Sometime in the next two years he will have to raise taxes but he won't want to leave it too late in the political cycle.
Alongside the gathering momentum evident in the euro zone economy, the virtual confirmation of a hike in March supports our view that ECB interest rates will rise further than markets are anticipating.
The downturn in the High Street might be past its worst, but spending is still growing at pretty modest rates.
The ECB may feel that the time is right to conclude that the risks to growth are now more equally balanced. Without a corresponding softening of the perceived upside risk to inflation, this would be seen as a strong signal that it is preparing to lift rates further.
