Bank of England hawks may not swoop on interest rates just yet

Despite hints of a winter increase in borrowing costs, recent figures suggest the economy is going through a soft patch rather than something more serious

For the past couple of months, the Bank of England has been preparing the ground for an increase in interest rates. The governor, Mark Carney, began the campaign at a lecture in Lincoln Cathedral in July, in which he said Threadneedle Street would start looking at raising borrowing costs around the turn of the year.

Since then, other members of the Bank's monetary policy committee have hinted that they too could soon be voting for the first increase in interest rates in more than eight years.

Related: Inflation collapse - should central banks raise interest rates or not?