Mortgage approvals showed slight improvement in September, but still lacked any significant movement in a positive direction. The Bank of England figures released Friday equaled the lows seen in February. They suggest the housing market remains in a fragile state. Those figures also leave the Bank of England in the precarious position of deciding whether or not to implement additional QE into the economy.

An economist at Daiwa Capital, Hetal Mehta, had strong feelings about the QE, as he remarked: "We do not think there is enough in these figures to persuade more Monetary Policy Committee members to join with Adam Posen in believing that more quantitative easing is required."

Vicky Redmond, Capital Economics, remarked on the possibility of more Quantitative Easing, saying: "While the Monetary Policy Committee looks likely to hold fire at next week’s meeting, more QE is probably not too far off."

The central bank data regarding mortgage approvals was anything but encouraging. In September they numbered 47,474. That is a drop off the August figure of 47,498. Albeit a marginal drop, but nonetheless a decrease. Analysts had even forecasted a figure of 46,000.

The surprising figure for many during this economic recovery, continues to be the low interest rates. The Bank of England base rate has remained at 0.5 per cent for several months now, with still very few borrowers. Banks have made borrowing even more difficult now, requiring a large deposit on any new property.

Analysts have thoughts on growth into next year, saying they expect growth to slow down sharply as soon as government spending cuts and tax hikes take effect early in 2011.