Last week this column praised Lord George for his steadfast silence ever since he retired as governor of the Bank of England four years ago.

Not like garrulous Alan Greenspan, we said, upstaging and second-guessing his successor whenever he gets to give an after-dinner speech or a reporter catches up with him.

Then yesterday morning I was roused by a familiar voice on the Today programme. "Steady Eddie" was setting the scene for the Bank to raise interest rates, or leave well alone, later in the morning.

Not to worry if rates go up, he assured drowsy Radio 4 listeners, it will be a sign of economic strength, not weakness.

He had lost none of his guile, none of his gift for skirting pitfalls, all the while sounding reassuring without being in the least boring or misleading.

Not a phrase of it should have irritated the present governor Mervyn King - though he might prefer a few more years of silence now.

In the event, the Bank - or a majority of its monetary policy committee - decided this was a month for doing nothing.

Inflation is coming down, back towards the two per cent target as advertised.

The dreaded pay explosion seems not to be happening, although there has been one report of a surge in starting pay for people taking up new jobs.

The housing market has lost some of its recently frantic momentum.

House prices may actually be falling in some parts of the country.

We have still to see what happens when cut-price fixed rate deals taken out in the heady days of 2005 run out in quantity in the coming months.

They have cushioned a lot of home-buyers from the reality of the Bank's four rate increases since August.

Why on earth pile on the pain, risk wrecking the best year British industry has seen this millennium, when the disease, such as it is, seems to be curing itself?

The up-front reason is that inflation is falling back now because the present crop of utility bills comes as a blessed relief from those dropping through the nation's letter boxes until very recently.

TV and computer prices are falling faster than ever, too, which helps if you are thinking of buying a TV or computer.

Food, which you buy every week, is another story.

It costs about six per cent more than it did last summer, driven by commodity prices and planet-saving bio-fuels mopping up crops we would otherwise eat.

We can expect more of that.

Then there is oil, back over $71 a barrel, some $10 more than last December.

If gas prices follow it up again - as they did in 2005 and early 2006 - forget those benign utility bills.

The half-hidden factor is simply that there is a lot of money around, a lot of jobs, too.

Pay may be lagging behind inflation, former spendthrifts may be trying to pay off their credit cards, but people running all sorts of companies tell the surveys they can make prices increases stick this summer in a way they have been unable to do for years.

This month the Bank took a chance that they will be wrong.

It may not do so again.