David Kern, its chief economic adviser, said: "They must consider the fragility of the economy and the serious risks facing businesses before tightening policy."Minutes of the July meeting published this week showed the MPC was in no hurry to change rates, with all seven members of the depleted body voting to leave borrowing costs steady.Meanwhile, households' inflation expectations eased to 2.1 per cent this month from 2.3 per cent in June, according to a YouGov survey for Citigroup.The GDP figures added to a run of strong figures this week, with retail sales posting a two-year high and gross mortgage lending reaching an all-time record. The quarterly growth translated into an annual rise of 2.6 per cent.. Dell, the world's biggest maker of computers, issued its third profit warning in a year yesterday, deepening the concern surrounding the company, which said it had slashed prices to try to keep up with rivals. News of the vicious nature of the price war in PCs and business computers sent shares across the industry tumbling, and Dell itself fell almost 10 per cent to $19.91 on Nasdaq - its lowest level in nearly five years. The one-time superstar has been losing ground to a resurgent Hewlett-Packard and the cheap Asian manufacturer Lenovo. It has also been suffering from a reputation for poor customer service, and has had to plough money into better call centres.The effect of cutting prices to win back customers has been to almost halve earnings in the second quarter of the year. Dell said it would post earnings per share of 21-23 cents, compared with 41 cents for the same period last year.Eric Ross, the technology analyst at ThinkEquity Partners, said Dell's inability to compete on price has been exposed just at the time demand for computers is slowing "Internally, the company is in disarray. Hewlett-Packard has gone through some very aggressive cost-cutting and can go after lower-margin products at greater profitability," said Mr Ross.

"But Dell is so used to winning and to building market share that it hasn't been able to retrench and learn to compete effectively."Kevin Rollins, Dell's chief executive, told shareholders at its annual meeting in Round Rock, Texas, yesterday that Dell had one of the most impressive long-term growth records in the industry. But he added: "We believe we are on the cusp of another round of industry consolidation and mixed results.". The pressure on Vodafone's embattled chief executive Arun Sarin shows no sign of letting up after one of the company's largest shareholders declared its intention to vote against his reelection at Vodafone's annual meeting next week. Morley Fund Management holds a 2.1 per cent stake in Vodafone, making it the mobile telecoms company's seventh largest shareholder. Lloyd Whitworth, the head of core UK equities at Morley, said: "Morley confirms that while it is encouraged by recent developments in company strategy, it has decided to vote against the reelection of a number of the incumbent non-executive directors and also Arun Sarin." Morleyhas been publicly critical of Mr Sarin in recent months. The fund manager is not convinced Vodafone's management, under the leadership of Mr Sarin, is appropriate to lead the new strategy that includes entering the broadband market. Standard Life, another top-10 Vodafone shareholder which has publicly criticised Mr Sarin, declined to comment on its intentions.A Vodafone spokesman said: "As far as we are aware, the vast majority of votes cast will be in support of the board." At Vodafone's annual meetingin London on Tuesday, it will introduce Sir John Bond, the former chairman of HSBC, as its new chairman.

Europe's largest mobile telecoms company will also release first-quarter trading data on Monday.Non-executive directorsMichael Boskin, J?n Schrempp and Luc Vandevelde, the former chairman of Marks & Spencer, have been singled out for criticism.. China took fresh steps to slow its red-hot economy yesterday, just days after official figures showed growth was running at its fastest pace for a decade. The central bank raised commercial banks' reserve requirements for the second time in a month in a bid to withdraw some of the cash flowing through the system. The People's Bank of China (PBOC) said it was increasing the proportion of deposits big banks must hold in reserve, rather than lend out, by 0.5 of a percentage point to 8.5 per cent, effective from 15 August. The move came five weeks after it raised the limit from 7.5 per cent and falls almost exactly a year after a landmark 2.1 per cent revaluation of the yuan and an accompanying shift from a dollar peg to a managed float.Monica Fan, the head of global foreign exchange strategy at RBC Capital Markets, said: "This was targeted at curbing speculative investment in housing, and we expect further increases in the reserves requirements are likely."Earlier this week, Beijing revealed that the economy grew at an annual rate of 11.3 per cent in the second quarter, making it the strongest growth since 1994.Zhang Haiyu, research director of a think-tank at the National Development and Reform Commission, said tougher reserve requirements were more effective than interest rates in soaking up excess liquidity."If the economy keeps growing at a pace of around 11 per cent this quarter, the reserve ratio will be further increased," he told Reuters. "I think 9 to 10 per cent is an appropriate level."Investment is growing at 30 per cent a year, money supply is expanding well above target and last month China recorded a record $14.5bn (£7.8bn) trade surplus.. Telent, the rump of the former UK industrial giant Marconi, is trying to stop the US hedge fund Polygon scuppering a £346m takeover of the company.