A slew of economic data released yesterday underscored just how severely the recession has hit households and businesses, but the figures offered a glimmer of hope that the economy was turning a corner.

The Bank of England released headline figures for its M4 money supply measure, which showed that for July this key metric grew by 1% compared with June. Growth of M4 is regarded as a sign that the quantitative easing programme may be boosting economic activity.

The increase comes after a decline of 0.3% in June and is the strongest one-month rise since quantitative easing began in March.

Financial Times