BoE's Lombardelli: Too Soon to Judge US Tariffs' Impact
LONDON (Reuters) - Bank of England Deputy Governor Clare Lombardelli said on Tuesday that it was still too soon to judge the inflation impact for Britain of U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs amid ongoing responses from other countries.
Growth was likely to be hurt by tariffs, while the BoE would look more closely at the inflation impact in the run-up to its May 8 interest rate decision, Lombardelli told a panel discussion hosted by the Resolution Foundation think tank.
"On inflation, it depends a lot more on the circumstances of actually how other countries respond, how that feeds through to the UK," she said. "But we'll think about all that together for our next decision in May. I'll not take a position on that now."
Financial markets think a quarter-point rate cut is a near certainty for the BoE in May and expect three rate cuts between now and the end of 2025, about one more than before last week's tariff announcements.
(Reporting by David Milliken; Editing by Catarina Demony)