MNI BRIEF: Negative Rate Prep Not Same As Deploying: Haldane

Bank of England Chief Economist Andy Haldane said Thursday that the work the Bank of England was doing to prepare for negative rates was not an indication the central bank was yet ready to use the tool, echoing comments on Wednesday from fellow Monetary Policy Committee member, Deputy Governor Dave Ramsden.

On the wider economy, Haldane said the MPC was studying consumption levels across the UK, seeing whether spending had been slashed or just reallocated. He told a conference on Rebuilding Macro organised by the National Institute it was "remarkable how resilient household spending has been".

Underlining just how much the spread of Covid-19 was underpinning thought, Haldane said that one item BOE researchers were looking into was how far behaviour is impacted by changes in rules on social distancing and how far it reflects fear of infection, with the question proving a tricky challenge in trying to disentangle the two.