Huw Pill, the new Bank of England chief economist, said in an interview Friday that he brings diversity to the central bank with his views on inflation.
The central bank had considered five women and four men for the role, and one ethnic minority, according to Bloomberg News, citing Freedom of Information Act disclosure.
“I do think I bring diversity on other dimensions,” Pill said, according to the Financial Times. “I’m not sure there are many other members of the MPC who would want to be identified as an acolyte of Otmar Issing whereas I am quite proud to be identified as that.”
Issing was the first chief economist at the European Central Bank, and had a hawkish outlook on inflation.
Pill said he wanted to end forward guidance on interest rates, a policy brought to the bank by its former governor, Mark Carney.
Pill said inflation could rise close to or even above 5% as he said the upcoming meeting was “finely balanced” as to whether there would be a rate rise or not. But he also said there was “a bit too much excitement” on rates right now. Markets are pricing in a 90% likelihood of a rate rise by December, according to the CME Bank of England watch tool, which is based on futures contracts.
The yield on the 2-year gilt
TMBMKGB-02Y,
edged down to 0.69% from 0.71%. The pound
GBPUSD,
traded at $1.3784, down slightly.
The FTSE 100
UKX,
advanced 0.6% to 7232.50 in afternoon trade, helped by mining sector gains.
The London Stock Exchange
LSEG,
slumped 5% after saying fourth-quarter income wouldn’t grow as fast as the nearly 8% growth in the third quarter. It also said that supply-chain pressures will impact the timing of some technology spending. The LSE said it’s “comfortably on track” to achieve the £125 million of cost synergies this year from the Refinitiv acquisition.
Analysts at UBS noted that while the LSE revenue growth was better than expected, it was largely driven by strength at majority owned Tradeweb
TW,
which the broker said would decelerate next year.
This post was originally published on Market Watch
