If it had to be done, then it was right for the Bank of England to waste no time and to press ahead with the necessary action.

Doves can make a decent case that there was no urgency about raising base rates today, and that by waiting the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) could have acted with perhaps greater unity and conviction if more economic data made a clear-cut case for another tightening.

But there can never be absolute certainty in the tricky task of setting rates.

The longer the delay as more clarity is awaited, the bigger the future moves that are required then become.

It was already apparent that a further turn of the screw was needed, both as a precaution to ensure that the Bank’s inflation target is met and to entrench the MPC’s credibility.

Although there have been some signs that the four previous rate rises imposed since last August have begun to have the desired effect, these have been only tentative so far.

All the figures suggest that the economy has continued to rattle along through the first half of the year at close to its long-run trend rate of growth.

Conditions in the services sector are boom-like, manufacturing remains in decent shape and the global economy is still buoyant.

Most crucially, all the business surveys point to companies persisting in their attempts to push up prices.

It remains questionable whether such rises can be made to stick, but this trend suggests that business needs to be reminded that the MPC will deliver the inflaton target, so that such actions ultimately will prove self-defeating and lead to interest rate retribution.

The good news, though, is that this rate rise is likely to prove the last of the present cycle.

While signs of the impact of higher rates have been limited until now, it is clear that household spending power is being squeezed, and that the housing market is losing steam.

Today’s rate rise will apply another touch on the brakes that should be sufficient to ensure that the Bank can be reasonably confident of having quashed inflation risks — and that its target will be hit with its hard-won credibility still intact.

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