LONDON (Reuters) – Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee member Catherine Mann on Friday said she voted for a 25-basis-point rate rise this week rather than a bigger increase because she saw signs that inflation expectations were falling.
Mann said the BoE had raised interest rates more slowly than she would have liked in 2022, but that she voted with the majority for a quarter-point increase to 4.25% this week because businesses’ and consumers’ expectations for future inflation had dropped.
“A key factor for me in agreeing with and also voting (with) the majority for a 25 basis point increase at the last meeting … was that these forward-looking measures of price expectations … had started to moderate, which is exactly the signal to me that my monetary policy is having an effect,” she said.
Mann was speaking at a panel discussion hosted by the University of South Florida.
(Reporting by David Milliken; editing by William James)
