Oct 14 (Reuters) – Bank of England Chief Economist Huw Pill, who had voted in favour of raising rates, said on Wednesday he was more sceptical about market pricing of four quarter-point increases to borrowing costs by the BoE over the next year.
“Is it obvious that we will need to move, follow market pricing to four 25 basis-point hikes and so forth? So there, I would be a little bit more sceptical,” Pill said during an event organised by Citi on the sidelines of the semi-annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund in Bangkok.
“I think it is important we get ourselves in the right position. I think we have some work to do there. I think that is something that probably is increasingly obvious now. But is four hikes appropriate over the next year?”
While Pill and two other Monetary Policy Committee members voted to raise interest rates in September, a majority on the MPC including Governor Andrew Bailey preferred no change pending clearer signs of the impact of the Iran war on inflation.
On Tuesday, Bailey repeated his view that pressure on broader inflation in the UK from the energy shock had so far been subdued, “but the longer this goes on, the harder it gets.”
(Writing by William Schomberg, editing by Sam Tabahriti)
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