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QUOTES-Bailey speaks after Bank of England holds rates at 5.25%
Published by Jessica Weisman-Pitts
Posted on February 1, 2024
2 min readLast updated: January 31, 2026
Global Banking & Finance Review®
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Published by Jessica Weisman-Pitts
Posted on February 1, 2024
2 min readLast updated: January 31, 2026
LONDON (Reuters) – Governor Andrew Bailey and other top Bank of England officials spoke to reporters after the British central bank held its key interest rate at 5.25% on Thursday.
LONDON (Reuters) – Governor Andrew Bailey and other top Bank of England officials spoke to reporters after the British central bank held its key interest rate at 5.25% on Thursday.
Below are quotes from Bailey at the press conference.
“We’ve had some good news over the past few months. Inflation has fallen a long way from 10% a year ago to 4% now. Things are moving in the right direction.”
“We have to be more confident that inflation will fall all the way back to the 2% target and stay there, and we’re not yet at a point where we can lower interest rates.”
“The level of bank rate remains appropriate. Any decision to change bank rate will depend on how the evidence evolves … we must get inflation back to the 2% target sustainably and we will do that.”
“Services price inflation tends to be persistent and it remains elevated…so it’s not as simple as inflation returns to target in the spring, and the job is done.”
“For me, the key question has moved from: how restrictive do we need to be? to, how long do we need to maintain this position for?”
“I’m very clear that the decision and the question we face now is for how long we have to maintain this stance, and we will not maintain it any longer than we need to do to achieve the objective of inflation being at 2% on a sustained basis.”
“Inflation has come down faster than we thought it would and that’s good news. We need to sustain that, but consistent with that good news we have removed the, what you might call bias we had before, which is that we thought the next move might be up more likely than down, and that’s gone.”
“We don’t need to see inflation back at target sustainably, we need to see it showing very clear evidence it’s heading to there.”
“We could cut interest rates and policy would still be restrictive. I mean, it’s the degrees of restriction.”
(Compiled by Farouq Suleiman and Muvija M, editing by Sarah Young)
Inflation is the rate at which the general level of prices for goods and services rises, eroding purchasing power. It is typically measured as an annual percentage increase.
The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom, responsible for issuing currency, maintaining monetary stability, and overseeing the financial system.
The key interest rate is the rate at which a central bank lends money to commercial banks, influencing overall economic activity and inflation.
Monetary policy refers to the actions taken by a central bank to manage the money supply and interest rates to achieve macroeconomic objectives like controlling inflation and stabilizing currency.
The 2% inflation target is the goal set by the Bank of England to maintain price stability, ensuring that inflation does not exceed this level over the medium term.
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