Andrew Sentance, member of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee, appeared in no rush to vote to cut UK base rates from 5% when he proclaimed last night that it was important not to "over-react" to turbulence in global financial markets.

Andrew Sentance, member of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee, appeared in no rush to vote to cut UK base rates from 5% when he proclaimed last night that it was important not to "over-react" to turbulence in global financial markets.

Sentance's latest remarks came as a survey from the Confederation of British Industry showed the UK retail sector has remained weak this month.

Forty-eight per cent of retailers reported in the CBI survey that their sales volumes in the first half of September were lower than in the same period last year, with only 21% saying they were higher.

The balance of 27% reporting a year-on-year fall was, however, not as bad as the net 42% projecting such an outcome a month earlier.

In a speech to a Leicester Chamber of Commerce dinner, Sentance said: "The media headlines and the economic commentary inevitably focus on a subset of economic activity.

"They focus on what is moving most dramatically, rather than what is most important.

"So, after a week in which it appeared that the financial markets went to hell and back, it is important to keep in mind that total financial services employment in the UK is around one million out of a total of nearly 32 million workforce jobs - about 3% of total employment.

"The impact of financial market developments on the other 97% is the main issue that we need to worry about in terms of the performance of the economy."

He added: "While I do not want to underplay the importance of financial market developments, it is important that monetary policy does not over-react to developments on volatile markets.

"Our judgements on monetary policy must take into account a broader assessment of how financial and commodity market developments will ultimately affect the decisions of real businesses and consumers in all sectors of the UK economy - and hence our rate of inflation."

Sentance acknowledged UK economic weakness but drew a distinction with major recessions of the past.

He said: "Evidence suggests that the economy could start to contract in the second half of this year or early in 2009, giving us one or more quarters of negative growth over this period.

"Economic forecasters and commentators are increasingly highlighting the risk of recession - at least on the technical definition of two consecutive quarters of declining GDP (gross domestic product) used by many economists.

"But the current prospect for the UK economy is very different to the major recessions we have previously seen in the mid-1970s, early-1980s and early-1990s.

"In these episodes, economic activity fell sharply for one to two years.

"In my view, the current outlook is for a much milder period of weak economic activity on this occasion."