-Kristin Forbes, MPC member
British wage growth started to accelerate and this trend will feed through to greater inflationary pressures at some point, meaning the UK central bank will have to consider raising interest rates, Monetary Policy Committee member Kristin Forbes said. Forbes also denied that the UK economy was falling into a period of deflation.
In the meantime, house prices in England and Wales advanced 6.7% over twelve months to January, marking the lowest level of price inflation since April 2014, according to data from the government's Land Registry. Yet, average prices rose between December and January by 1.3%. London remained the biggest upward catalyst, with prices soaring 12% on an annual basis. Nationwide reported that house prices in Britain continued to climb between December and January, but slowed to the lowest level in 14 months when compared to the same period last year. The UK's top property portal Rightmove said earlier the average asking price of properties had climbed 2.1% between January and February. Meanwhile according to Halifax House Price Index data, house prices in the quarter to January rose 1.9%, which was the first quarterly increase in the last six months. Looking ahead, Halifax said "house prices are predicted to increase in a range of 3 to 5% in 2015 compared with 8% last year."
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