The Monetary Policy Committee’s external member was among those who voted to hold bank rate at 5% last week, following a 0.25% cut in August. Its first reduction in four years.

The move came as inflation was reported as 2.2% in August, unchanged from July, just above the BoE’s 2% target.

But Greene points to “an overall weakness of UK consumption”, linked to wage growth at 5.1% between May to July, the highest it has been since April to June 2022.

Services inflation came in at 5.2% in the year to August from 5.6% the month before. However, the MPC has said it wants this figure to fall below 5%.

Greene says “services inflation has remained stubbornly persistent,” in a speech to the Chambers of Commerce in Newcastle.

She said she would “be looking for incoming data to provide evidence” that a period of “economic slack is required to bring inflation sustainably to target” before voting to cut rates.

The rate-setter pointed out: “It is clearly too early to see the impact of our 0.25% cut in August”.

She added: “Until then, I believe a cautious, steady-as-she-goes approach to monetary policy easing is appropriate.”

Greene pointed out that rising and falling rates take a particularly long time to feed through to mortgage holders.

She said in June, “over three million households, accounting for 35% of all mortgages, were still paying rates of less than 3%.”

The policymaker pointed out: “That 30% of mortgage accounts were expected to have their fixed rate expire before the end of 2026 and the typical homeowner was expected to see monthly payments rise by around £180, or 28%.

“This is a significant additional burden on disposable income that is yet to come for many households, and a smaller proportion will see much larger increases in payments of 50% or more.”

Despite Greene’s comments, money markets are pricing in a UK base rate cut at the committee’s November meeting, followed by a second in December.