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Bailey speech: ‘Table mountain’ is a good analogy for keeping rates on hold

Bank of England (BoE) Governor Andrew Bailey is testifying on the November Monetary Policy Report (MPR) before the UK’s Parliament's Treasury Select Committee (TSC) on Tuesday.

Key quotes 

Latest fall in inflation was good news.

News on inflation was largely as we expected.

Inflation will end year a little lower than we expected, but not by much.

We've seen some weakening on the quantity side of labor market.

Some signs that wage growth is coming off, but well above inflation target consistent level.

We are on target to get inflation back to 2%.

‘Table mountain’ is a good analogy for keeping rates on hold.

Risks are on the upside.

Inefficient labor market is one upside risk to inflation.

Situation in Middle East is a risk to Oil prices, if there is wider regional engagement.

Sensible to keep rates where they are.

Market is putting too much weight on current data releases.

We are concerned about potential inflation persistence.

Markets underestimate risk of inflation persistence.

QT is only having a small impact on yields, perhaps 10-15 bps.

We fully take impact of QT into account when we set interest rates.

If we tried to bring inflation back to target faster by raising rates more now, that would push inflation below target.

The trade off is on fighting inflation vs. growth.

Market reaction

The Pound Sterling is holding higher ground on the above comments, with GBP/USD currently trading at 1.2540, up 0.30% on the day.

Author

Dhwani Mehta

Dhwani Mehta

FXStreet

Residing in Mumbai (India), Dhwani is a Senior Analyst and Manager of the Asian session at FXStreet. She has over 10 years of experience in analyzing and covering the global financial markets, with specialization in Forex and commodities markets.

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