Mann on why guidance was changed

Question: On the forward guidance statement being omitted in the Minutes referring to tightening in the coming months. Why has this been removed?

Mann: That sentence was wearing thing in terms of our view on what it was communicating to markets and we have market intelligence as part of the internal workings of the bank, where they talk to market participants about what markets think we are communicating to them. We thought it was appropriate to recalibrate market thinking about prospects for monetary policy. Gave important guidance about size, timing and pace of future increases - as you know from the votes there were differences in views on size, timing and pace. Also that section included an important assessment about being vigilant about persistence in inflation as well as to act forcefully if such persistence became apparent. We did change the language, but replaced it with language that gives more information about what it is we are looking for going forward and how we will react to get the market back to 2% in the medium-term.