LANCASTER (MNI) – Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee
member Ben Broadbent has said that he expects inflation to remain close
to where it currently is in coming months before drifting lower from
next spring onwards.
“In the near-term I think we expect inflation to remain sort of
where it is … and then it will start drifting down from next Spring
onwards,” Broadbent said in a question and answer session at Lancaster
University.
“The overall judgement is we still have spare capacity in the
economy … That gives rise to a situation where inflation drifts down,”
he added.
The latest outturn for headline CPI was 2.2% in September, but the
lower inflation outturn was driven by base effects from last year’s
utility price hikes.
The fall in utility prices on the year, which cut inflation by 0.43
percentage point in September, is likely to be shortlived with suppliers
having just announced large increases in prices which will show up in
the CPI figures over the next few months.
–London newsroom: 4420 7 862 7492; email: wwilkes@marketnews.com
[TOPICS: M$B$$$,M$$BE$]
