MNI BRIEF: Hold Rates Until Softer Inflation More Certain - BOE Haskel
MNI (LONDON) - Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee member Jonathan Haskel made clear Monday that he will not back a rate cut in his final meeting in August.
At the hawkish end of the MPC spectrum, Haskel said that the recent return of inflation to target was temporary and that he expected it move back above target and to stay for "quite some time". He said that the wage-price system "has been subject to a sequence of enormous shocks over recent years ... inflation will remain above target for quite some time. I would rather hold rates until there is more certainty that underlying inflationary pressures have subsided sustainably."
Haskel took the lead on the MPC in highlighting the scale of the rise in economic inactivity due to ill-health post-Covid and the labour supply shortage and he said in his speech "The labour market continues to be tight, and I worry it is still impaired."