Speaking at a press conference following the Bank of England's latest policy decision, its governor Andrew Bailey said that, in his view, the British central bank is not yet at a point where it can lower rates, and he believes that that level of the Bank Rate remains appropriate.
The official added that it isn't as simple as seeing inflation return to target in the spring and calling the job done. He admitted, however, that things are moving in the right direction.
Bailey stated that the BoE has to keep monetary policy sufficiently restrictive for sufficiently long, noting that how long that will be and how high rates have to stay depends on incoming data.
The BoE's chief also suggested that if the policymakers were to follow the market rate conditioning path, inflation would be above the BoE's target for much of the next three years. In addition, he assured that the BoE will not maintain the policy stance any longer than it needs to do.