Public concerns about inflation rose sharply in August as satisfaction with the Bank of England’s control of prices sank to its lowest level in a decade.

In the BoE’s quarterly survey of attitudes to inflation, more people were satisfied than dissatisfied with the BoE’s performance, but only a third of people said they thought it was doing a good job in keeping prices under control. The 33 per cent satisfaction score was the lowest level since the survey started in 1999 and has only been hit once before in November 2011.

The findings come at a sensitive time with financial markets also expressing increasing doubt over the bank’s ability and willingness to control rising inflation and just ahead of next week’s meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee.