On Friday Nationwide said its house price index had jumped 1.8 per cent in July, with the annual rate picking up to 12.2 per cent.A spokeswoman for Halifax claimed its rival’s figures reflected a bias towards London and the South-east. The growth in the narrow money measure M0, of which cash forms the biggest component, eased to 5.9 from 6.2 per cent in June.This was its slowest annual growth rate for 18 months. But economists were wary about drawing any conclusions for high street spending, as retail sales growth has picked up during this year.Adam Cole, UK economist at James Capel, said consumers were spending on big-ticket items which were unlikely to be paid for in cash. Analysts also pointed out that all other recent indicators of consumer spending had indicated booming demand. Yesterday’s figures were not enough to change the minds of the Bank’s experts if they wanted to raise interest rates.. But Nationwide said its figures were weighted to adjust for regional differences and were more reliable because they were based on a bigger number of housing transactions than the Halifax measure.With mixed signals on the housing market, a separate indicator yesterday pointed to slower growth in cash in circulation last month.

Analysts remained divided about whether or not the Bank would announce the fourth increase in the cost of borrowing in four months after its meeting ends on Thursday.
Halifax reported yesterday that house prices had remained almost flat last month, climbing only 0.1 per cent. The annual rate of increase slowed to 6.4 from 7.1 per cent in June.Halifax said the housing recovery would continue, describing the market as “well supported”. But its downbeat figures contrasted with Nationwide’s alternative measure. The US Drug Enforcement Agency must also still approve Shire as a licence holder for strictly controlled drugs sold by Richwood.Investment column, page 17.

The first tentative signs yesterday that consumer spending was not after all getting out of control were not expected to carry much weight with the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee when it meets this week. In the space of 15 months, Adderall has swept up 5.1 per cent of a market put at $457m in 1996. The company claims that with its other treatment, DextroStat, it has taken its overall share to 9 per cent recently, mostly at the expense of Abbott Laboratories’ Cylert product and Medeva’s methylphenidate, the generic drug which has fuelled recent growth.Richwood says the product is longer lasting and has fewer side-effects. However, none of its drugs has patent protection and the group is facing a class action suit relating to its Phentermine obesity treatment. The claims, denied by the company, sent the shares 10p lower at one stage yesterday, before bouncing back to end 5p higher at 157.5p.The Shire deal was greeted more enthusiastically by analysts. Richwood claims to have launched the fastest growing drug in the US to treat disruptive children with so-called attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. A $186m (pounds 114m) deal to buy a US drugs group unveiled by Shire Pharmaceuticals and good results from Oxford Molecular helped the biotechnology sector shrug off negative sentiment yesterday.