Andrew Sentance, a member of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), has put pressure on colleagues by claiming that strong global demand rather than unemployment would slow down price rises in the UK.

Since June of last year, Sentance has voted for a rise in interest rates, which stood at 4 per cent in January.

This is twice the official target.

Governor of the Bank, Mervyn King has announced that the rates will remain high largely due to sharp rises in commodity prices and the VAT increase.

The results of a recent survey by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) have also found this to be the case; they expect growth in 2011 to be "anaemic and sluggish".

In Sentance's address to the Institute of Economic Affairs he noted that the "output gap", or difference between actual and potential performance of the UK economy, is less than it was in previous recessions.

"Output gap" is considered an indicator for the speed of growth of the economy without the need to inflate prices.

Sentance argued that wages may rise more quickly with fewer people competing for work than in the 1980s and 1990s, and that this would lead to higher inflation.

He supported his argument with figures for domestic demand, business expectations and unemployment.

Sentance said that there is a danger that businesses will "come to expect higher inflation on an ongoing basis and the higher rate of inflation becomes deeply ingrained".

However, his key point was that global forces such as Asia and other emerging markets were the driving force behind "the upward pressure on prices" and that these forces were in dire need of more attention from the MPC.

He ended his speech by considering the exchange rate; observing that we have far exceeded the healthy depreciation which would boost export demand.

The value of the pound must become an essential "focus for the MPC as we seek to steer ourselves out of the current phase of high inflation", Sentance concluded.