Economic week ahead

Was the Bank of England right or wrong to raise interest rates? We will get new hints this week.

Mark Carney edged rates up from 0.5pc to 0.75pc in a bid to see off what he believes are early signs of inflationary pressures building in the economy.

These are coming through in wages and in consumer prices, he said, though economists have expressed some scepticism over the extent of these rises.

Tomorrow’s labour market data from the Office for National Statistics will shed some light on this.

It includes details of average annual earnings growth in the second quarter. So far, it has been muted, staying below 3pc since 2015.

But signs of new increases would be significant.

It is followed by inflation data for July on Wednesday. Price pressures spiked last year on imported inflation, and have slid since.

The Bank cares about domestic pressures though, which again have shown few signs of life.