Ecomomic slowdown data mounts

Confidence in the housing market has plummeted as inflationary pressures rose to levels not seen for 20 years, new data has revealed today.

The latest survey of Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) members showed that 19 in every 20 estate agents reported a fall in house prices for April.

Meanwhile figures from the Office for National Statistics reported yesterday that the prices of manufactured goods rose 7.5% in the year to April, making it more difficult to cut interest rates to alleviate problems in the lending markets.

The Financial Times reported Michael Saunders of Citi's warning that a growing inflation threat alongside a slowing economy was "bound to alarm the Monetary Policy Committee and intensify their worries about upside medium-term risks to UK inflation."