A belated comment on the Bank of England's inflation report. The growth forecast is slightly less perky than three months ago, though this is balanced by a more confident tone. The Bank thinks that the downside risks to the recovery have diminished. It also thinks that inflation will fall very sharply after its current blip, implying no need for quite some time for the monetary policy committee to think about raising interest rates or reversing quantitative easing. If things turn out like this, it would be rather good news. The inflation report is here.

Meanwhile, official figures showed a decent rise in manufacturing output in December, up 0.9%. The National Institute of Economic and Social Research suggests on the basis of this that gross domestic product rose by 0.4% in the three months to January. That's the kind of momentum the economy needs. More here on industrial production.