The Deputy Governor of the Bank of England, Dave Ramsden, announced his view on Tuesday that inflationary pressures remain persistent and that he wants more evidence on how long those pressures are likely to remain strong before considering a change in the Bank of England's (BoE) high interest rate. .
"Although services inflation and wage growth have fallen slightly more in recent months than expected, although key indicators of inflation consistency remain high," Ramsden said in the text of a speech he delivered at the Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME) Conference.
Ramsden was one of six members of the Monetary Policy Committee who voted to keep interest rates at 5.25% at the BoE's last meeting, while two other members voted for a quarter-point increase and one for a quarter-point cut.
Ramsden said he supported the BoE's "more balanced view" of how inflation might play out with investors seeing room for lower borrowing costs in the coming months.
"In terms of my thinking about the future, I'm looking for more evidence on how robust this consistency will be and therefore on how long the current level of Bank Rate needs to be set," Ramsden said.
The BoE has forecast inflation will fall to its 2% target in the second quarter of 2024 but will rise to around 2.75% this year after that. Investors currently expect the central bank to start cutting interest rates as early as August.
