Bank of England rules out interest rate rise for now

London, Jan 20: Bank of England (BoE) Governor Mark Carney has ruled out an interest rate hike for the time being contending that “now is not yet the time to raise interest rates” in the wake of gloomy global economy and modest British economic growth since summer.

“Not enough cumulative progress had been made to warrant tightening monetary policy,” Xinhua cited Carney as saying at Queen Mary University of London on Tuesday.

He said this as an assessment for last summer when he suggested that a decision as to when to start raising bank rate would likely come into sharper relief around the turn of the year.

The governor said the outlook for monetary policy depends on three things — the Monetary Policy Committee’s objectives, its strategy, and the British economic prospects.

“Our objective is clear: to return inflation to the target in a way that avoids undue volatility in output and employment,” he added.

British inflation rate as measured by the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) rose to an 11-month high of 0.2 percent in December, from November’s 0.1 percent, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) released on Tuesday.

Latest minutes from BoE’s MPC, which voted 8-1 to keep rates at their current historic low of 0.5 percent, showed that members expect inflation to remain far below its two percent target for some time yet. (IANS)