BoE's Huw Pill says rate cuts still some way off

The Bank of England’s chief economist, Huw Pill, said on Tuesday that rate cuts were still "some way off".

In a speech at the London campus of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, Pill warned there are greater risks associated with easing too early should inflation persist rather than easing too late if it abates.

He said: "Against a welcome backdrop of declining headline inflation anticipated by the MPC, the flow of conjunctural data since I last spoke on the monetary policy stance in Cardiff in early March has offered modest relevant news. This suggests little need to amend the assessment of the economic, inflation and policy outlook that I offered then.

"In Cardiff, I concluded that, while we are making satisfactory progress in returning inflation to target, in my baseline scenario the time for cutting Bank Rate remained some way off.

"That justified my vote to keep Bank Rate unchanged at the MPC’s February meeting and underpinned my subsequent decision to vote similarly in March.

"The combination of little news and the passage of time have brought a Bank Rate cut somewhat closer. But the same lack of news gives me no reason to depart from the baseline that I already established on St. David’s Day."

Following his remarks, as of 1628 BST sterling was ahead by 0.73% against the U.S. dollar to 1.2440 and the yield on the benchmark 10-year Gilt by five basis points to 4.254%.