The Bank of England nochange interest rate decision yesterday, leaving its official rate at 4.5 per for a third month was so widely expected that few observers challenged it outright.
One notable exception was the British Retail Consortium where Kevin Hawkins, the BRC's director general denounced the Bank for failing to reflect the reality on the high street.
"Weak consumer sentiment does not appear to be subsiding," he declared.
"One reduction, while welcome, will still take some months to work through to the consumer and have any effect. A further cut between now and Christmas is necessary if we are to see any positive change in the retail climate."
In Birmingham, David Waller, Midlands chairman of PricewaterhouseCoopers, said " We would strongly urge the (Bank's) monetary policy committee to keep a close eye on growth levels over the next few months.
"With weak consumer spending impacting heavily on the high street, the retail sector looks set for a difficult Christmas period.
"When, action was taken in the summer it was very late in the day - arguably too late for some. If the case for reducing the base rate increases in the final months of the year, we can only hope that this cautious approach doesn't have a detrimental effect on the wider economy."
Although very few City economist expected, or called for, a cut in the cost of borrowing yesterday, the are split over the the likelihood of a move in the coming months.
"There is still a battle royal going on between the hawks and the doves over easing," said David Brown, chief European economist at Bear Stearns. He is among those who argues that economic growth is falling short of the Bank's August forecasts and it will have to cut the official rates by another quarter point to 4.25 per cent as early as November.
Other analysts argue the worst is over for the economy and the Bank will raise the rate early next year as the US Federal Reserve is now doing.
Some even expect an increase from the European Central Bank by the middle of next year.
Yesterday it left its rate steady at 2 per cent, where it has been for the last two years.
