These forecasts may of course be superseded by subsequent events, and we will be seeing the latest forecast at the forthcoming MPC meeting. However, most forecasts project a significant slowdown in the pace of at which inflation is expected to fall later in the year or early next year.
At the end of the 1980s bank deposits amounted to only 4 percent of GDP, whereas today they amount to 16 percent of GDP. The growth of bank deposits has, in turn, made possible a dramatic growth in bank lending to the private sector. In real terms, after adjusting for inflation, commercial bank lending to the private sector has expanded eighteen fold since 1992.