19 AUGUST 2000, Page 28

Holiday task

AUGUST is the Bank of England's tradi- tional month for waiting to see how things look after the holidays. This time tradition won, but only by a short head. Four of the monetary policy committee's members were for putting interest rates up without further delay. They included the Bank's chief economist and both of its Deputy Governors. The Governor himself was, nat- urally, on tradition's side. In August, he likes to go sailing. All the same, interest rates around the world are edging higher already in Japan, perhaps as soon as next week in America, and soon after that in the euro-zone. Once the holidays are over, it looks as if our own rates will be on their way up again.