UK's Hammond says BoE will take first steps on Brexit shock recovery

Hammond also declined to confirm whether he would follow through on his predecessor George Osborne's plan to make further cuts to corporation tax.

He told parliament during the weekly Treasury questions session that the central bank would take any immediate action to alleviate Britain's Brexit slowdown, while he would spell out new fiscal plans in the autumn.

"The initial response to this kind of a shock must be a monetary response delivered by the Bank of England," Hammond said.

"And the governor, in announcing that interest rates were not to be lowered last week, did make it clear that the Bank is developing a monetary package that it will announce in due course."

Asked whether he would stick with a proposal made by his predecessor George Osborne shortly after the referendum to lower Britain's corporation tax rate to below 15%, Hammond said his focus would be to boost business investment.

"(When) we look at the corporate tax environment, we will not just be looking at headline rates, we will be looking at what the marginal effective rates of corporate tax are for investors in the UK," he said.