Bank of England Releases Uninformative Statement Keeping Existing Policy Settings
March 5, 2015
At meetings when the nine-person Monetary Policy Committee chooses not to modify policy, as was the case this month and most of the time, officials almost never disclose extra information beyond when policy was changed, the size of that change, and the release time for minutes of the meeting just completed. Today’s statement instructs those who wish to know how the voting went and what policymakers are now perceiving to tune into the minutes, which will be released March 18 at 09:30 London time. The voting for no change was unanimous at the February meeting. The majority then felt that the next rate change would most likely be a hike but did not seems especially anxious to start such a process this year. Over the past month, the tone of British economic data has brightened. A lull in the second half of 2014 seems to have run its course. The latest manufacturing purchasing managers index for Britain rose a full point to a 7-month high of 54.1. The U.K. construction PMI of 60.1 in February was at a 4-month high, and the composite PMI for manufacturing and services, 56.7 in both January and February, suggests real GDP growth accelerated from 0.5% last quarter to something closer to 0.6% in the current period.
Copyright 2015, Larry Greenberg. All rights reserved. No secondary distribution without express permission.
Tags: Bank of England
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