Remarks by BOE governor, Andrew Bailey, on BBC Radio 4

  • Impact of lockdown is less than it was a year ago
  • We now have a more balanced picture of risks
  • Economy expected to return to pre-pandemic size around the end of the year
  • Build-up of savings is an upside risk
  • I would expect pickup in inflation towards 2% in the next few months
  • We do not see inflation rising towards 4% or 5%
  • We are not out of tools for policy options
  • We could introduce new monetary policy tools
  • We are asking banks to get ready for negative rates
  • But there is no view on whether we will use them or not
  • Rise in rates in the market is consistent with change in economic outlook

This isn't anything we haven't heard before but he isn't quite pushing back against how gilts have been behaving recently, underscoring further optimism in the economy for the most part. I guess that is one positive takeaway, if anything.

Cable keeping little changed around 1.3926 currently, after having bounced off near-term support from its 200-hour moving average closer to 1.3900 earlier.