Comment & Analysis

Friday July 3, 02:27 PM
FACTBOX-Bank of England policymakers' recent comments

LONDON, July 3 (Reuters) - Following are a selection of comments from Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee members since their last meeting.

Double-click on the links in brackets for the full story.

DAVID MILES, APPOINTMENT HEARING BEFORE TREASURY SELECT COMMITTEE, JULY 2

'I remain of the view that while a return to growth does seem to be plausible, and monetary policy is having traction in the economy, the idea that we'll return to rapid growth and that there will be a sustained return to growth above the long-run trend of 2.5 percent seems pretty unlikely.'

TIMOTHY BESLEY, SPEECH AT REGULATION CONFERENCE, JULY 2

'Just as with monetary policy conducted by adjusting Bank Rate, there is little point now in trying to speculate about the quantitative nature of the trigger events in the data that would lead to policy tightening.

'It will be the forward-looking implications of these data that are essential to any such decision.'

PAUL TUCKER, SPEECH TO BANKING CONFERENCE, JUNE 30

'Banks must structure and run themselves to permit orderly wind down. And they must invest to provide the authorities with the information they need to do so.'

MPC APPEARANCE BEFORE PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE, JUNE 24

MERVYN KING

'I you withdraw stimulus too quickly, you run the risk that the downturn will resume. Equally, of course, we need to be very careful not to allow the stimulus to reach the point at which inflation takes off.

'Although we are finding it easy now to finance those deficits by issuing gilts, there could be challenges down the road. What is needed is a credible statement of a path that will guide the reduction in deficits over the years.'

CHARLES BEAN

'There's a considerable degree of uncertainty about the strength of the upturn, not just here but around the world.'

KATE BARKER

'To some extend the jury is still out. The financial system remains vulnerable.'

ANDREW SENTANCE

'I'd see this as evidence that the economy is reaching some sort of bottom of the fall in output. I would expect that to be followed by recovery in output; I think the question is we can't say how strong that's going to be.'

PAUL FISHER, EVIDENCE TO TREASURY SELECT COMMITTEE, JUNE 24

'We are in the midst of the deepest recession in at least a generation. This has created spare capacity in the economy and put downward pressure on inflation. However, there are promising signs that output is at least falling less quickly. Indeed the latest indicators are encouraging in that respect.'

SPENCER DALE, SPEECH IN LONDON, JUNE 23

'It is still early days in terms of judging the ultimate success of the (QE) programme in stimulating nominal spending, but initial indications remain encouraging.

'It will be the outlook for inflation relative to target that will determine the rate at which the current exceptional degree of monetary stimulus is withdrawn as economic prospects recover.

'When the time comes, the Committee can tighten policy both by raising Bank Rate and by selling assets.'

MERVYN KING, INTERVIEW WITH SOUTHERN DAILY ECHO, JUNE 19

'We are seeing now some signs that the rate at which outlook was falling is beginning to flatten off but I don't think anyone should draw strong conclusions.

'You can't regain it (confidence) quickly, so it's bound to take a lot longer to recover than it was to fall into recession, which was a very sharp fall in activity over the last six months.

'I don't think it would be sensible to expect activity to pick up as quickly.'

MERVYN KING, MANSION HOUSE SPEECH, JUNE 17

'It is too soon to reverse the extraordinary policy stimulus that has been injected into the UK economy through monetary policy, the provision of liquidity support to banks, guarantees of bank funding, and fiscal policy. Nevertheless, it is not too early to prepare for such exit strategies and to explain how they would work.

'When appropriate the Monetary Policy Committee will raise Bank rate and gradually run down its portfolio of assets in a manner consistent with maintaining orderly markets.'

MINUTES TO MAY MPC POLICY MEETING, JUNE 17

'Overall, the risk of a continued sharp contraction in output in the near term had receded somewhat. However, there was no reason to conclude that the medium-term outlook for the economy, and thus inflation, had changed materially since the Inflation Report had been finalised.

'Even if developments over the month had been positive, the increase in confidence apparent in some financial market indicators and some household and corporate sector surveys remained fragile.'

(Compiled by Christina Fincher) Keywords: BRITAIN BANK/COMMENTS (UK Economics Desk; Tel: +44 207 542 7748)

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