The Bank of England raised short-term interest rates by fifty-basis-points yesterday, bringing the base lending rate to 3.50%. From the votes cast, it is clear that there is a diverse range of views among committee members.

Catherine Mann sees inflation as the most significant threat to the financial stability of the economy and voted for a seventy-five-basis point increase. Silvana Tenreyro and the newest member of the MPC, Swati Dhingra both saw a recession being made worse by higher interest rates and voted to leave rates unchanged.

Analysts believe that it is healthy to have a variety of views on the committee, provided they remain relative to the current situation and are not synonymous with a hardened view of economic policy.

In her three meetings to date. Dhingra has now voted for a lower hike than was agreed on every occasion. Her ballot may now be considered as a protest vote, and be disregarded by the market as she is considered out of step.

The nature of Governor Andrew Bailey's statement following the announcement was more dovish than has been seen recently. He is clearly concerned about the rate of inflation which is showing no signs of materially slowing yet, and he believes that it is vital that the Government remains firm in negotiations with public sector workers pay demands, but feels that inflation will begin to fall gradually, while the economy has entered a potentially damaging recession.

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