LONDON
(Reuters) - Top Bank of England official Ben Broadbent is not ready to raise
interest rates just yet, he said in a newspaper interview published on
Wednesday,
substantially lessening the chances that borrowing costs will rise
soon.
Deputy
Governor Broadbent said the mood among businesses was central to his analysis
and that it was "very difficult" for the bank's Monetary Policy
Committee to judge whether there had been a significant improvement.
"In my
opinion, it is a bit tricky at the moment to make a decision (to raise rates).
I am not ready to do it yet," Broadbent told the Press and Journal
newspaper during a trip to the Scottish city of Aberdeen.
Investors
have keenly awaited Broadbent's thoughts on rates, because he has not commented
publicly since the Monetary Policy Committee came unexpectedly close to raising
interest rates for the first time in a decade last month.
Several
analysts have said the views of Broadbent - who is deputy governor for monetary
policy - would be key to assessing the chances of a first BoE rate hike in a
decade.
Broadbent
said economic growth had been "okay" during the last six to 12 months
and pointed to rising employment and inflation.
"There
is reason to see the committee moving in that direction (higher interest rates)
– but there are still a lot of imponderables," he said.
The Press
and Journal quoted Broadbent as saying that many companies would remain nervous
about their prospects while they were "one or two years down the
road" of knowing what Brexit means.
On Tuesday,
Broadbent said in a speech that a reduction in trade between Britain and the
European Union would harm both economies and causes prices to rise.
New MPC
member Silvana Tenreyro, who replaced rate-increase advocate Kristin Forbes
this month, has yet to speak on policy.
Reuters
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