At their meeting in June, Fed officials differed on inflation, but there was general concern that higher energy costs were leaking into other areas of the economy.
The global picture is even more difficult to pinpoint because of differing rates of ticket inflation around the world.
While both countries are on the road to recovery, their economies have experienced differing rates of GDP growth, inflation and employment at different periods since the recession hit in 2008.
Senior government advisers differ marginally on inflation forecasts but otherwise there is consensus that the good times can continue into 2004, perhaps beyond, without any overheating.
When the chancellor obliged the MPC to write to him to explain whenever measured inflation differed from the target by more than one percentage point, Mervyn King, now one of the Bank's deputy governors, joked that this edict would restore the lost art of letter-writing.
If long-term interest rates or inflation differ from expectations, gold prices could potentially be helped or hurt.
It's just that they were guessing the future in their assumptions, and their guesses differed widely on inflation rates and the rate of investment return.
In this context, the finding of the present study suggests that the effect of crude oil and domestic gasoline price changes on consumer prices and core inflation differs according to regimes, and this indicates that increases in crude oil prices have no inflationary effects, while increases in gasoline prices do.
This in turn reflects differing views about the outlook for inflation, which has made the Bank's inflation forecast increasingly difficult to interpret.
He argues that countries need differing levels of interest rates in order to eliminate inflation before even thinking about anything as radical as full monetary union.
An annual publication showing how inflation measures differ between these groups would be most welcome".
