The governor of the Bank of England was outvoted for the second time ever during this month's monetary policy committee (MPC) meeting on interest rates.

Minutes from the June 6th to 7th meeting have shown that Mervyn King and three other MPC members wanted to raise interest rates to 5.75 per cent.

But Mr King, deputy governor John Gieve, Tim Besley and Andrew Sentence were outvoted five to four by the Bank's doves, led by deputy governor Rachel Lomax and chief economist Charles Bean.

Interest rates were held at 5.5 per cent in June after quarter of a percentage point rises in May and January of this year, as well as August and November in 2006.

Economists say that Mr King's stance makes a 0.25 per cent rise in July "highly likely", despite consumer spending and the housing market showing signs of slowing down.

"Furthermore, the minutes give the impression that for some of the other MPC members, it was a question of when to raise interest rates again rather than if," commented Howard Archer, chief UK and European economist at Global Insight.

"There is clearly a very real risk that interest rates will reach six per cent before the end of the year, given the upside risks to inflation stemming from firms' pricing power, possible capacity constraints amid ongoing robust domestic demand, excessively buoyant money supply growth, high oil prices and the risk that pay could yet move higher over the coming months despite wages remaining broadly contained so far," Mr Archer went on to explain.

"Much will depend on how well the economy holds up over the coming months, as this will significantly influence the extent to which firms can raise prices and make them stick."

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