LONDON (Reuters) – Bank of England policymaker Catherine Mann said on Wednesday there was a strong case to front-load interest rate increases, especially at times of rising inflation expectations.
Mann, speaking at an event hosted by the Canadian Association for Business Economics (CABE), was asked whether current financial market turmoil lessened the appeal of the more aggressive approach to rate rises which she has advocated.
Mann declined to comment on the market situation, but referred back to a report she gave to the British parliament last month on research which supported taking firm action to tackle rising inflation expectations.
“In an environment where inflation expectations are drifting, and the data is very clear that they are drifting … front-loading policy to affect the inflation process and also to affect inflation expectations puts us in an environment where the trade-off is less,” she said.
Mann was part of a minority on the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) which voted for a 0.75 percentage point rate rise in September, in contrast to the majority which backed a 0.5 percentage point increase to 2.25%.
(Reporting by David Milliken, Editing by Paul Sandle)
