Sir Digby Jones, head of the Confederation of British Industry has called for the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee to cut interest rates on the basis of recent weak economic data. He pointed to the CBI's latest retail sales figures released last week, which showed June recorded the worst year-on-year sales figures for 22 years, as well as the sharp revision to first-quarter GDP announced by the office of National Statistics. New official data "re-enforces growing business concerns over weak profitability", he said. "The loss of momentum since Spring 2004 is totally consistent with a structural decline in company profits that CBI research identified at the beginning of the year." Business investment is also "a lot weaker" than official figures might suggest, he argued. "This, taken together with the dramatic fall in retail sales in June, with similar predictions for July, and the continued underlying pressure on commodity prices, would make an early cut in interest rates by the MPC on Thursday a prudent and timely response," Jones said. He also pointed to signs of a decline in the housing market and the resultant impact on confidence, which he said the UK economy cannot afford. "As there still seems little risk of inflation, the time for action is now," he said.