Speaking on Radio 4’s World at One programme, notoriously well-briefed journalist Peston said: “I think it will be the next two to three months [rates] will go up.”

Bank of England Governor Mark Carney also said last week that rates could go up later this year and Sterling has been rising ever since to top £1.70 against the dollar yesterday.

Peston said: “It looks as though the UK will be the first of the developing economies to see interest rates edging back to normal levels.

“While the strength of the recovery is clear, it doesn’t look like rates will go up in the USA, for some considerable time,” he told programme host Martha Kearney.

The last interest rate movement was a cut to 0.5% in March 2008.

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In May this year, Bank of England Governor Mark Carney tried to defuse expectations of an imminent rate hike by saying it would “not be the right tool” to deal with a booming housing market. He instead pointed to the range of macro-prudential tools available to the Bank’s Financial Policy Committee, such as adjusting bank capital requirements or mortgage affordability requirements.