May rise

8 February 2018 By Swaha Pattanaik Follow @swahapattanaik

The Bank of England boss says UK interest rates may rise further and sooner than previously anticipated. But that assumes a smooth exit from the European Union. If the prime minister fails to secure a transition deal in the next few months he will have to backtrack.

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The Bank of England left its policy rate unchanged at 0.5 percent on Feb. 8 but said interest rates would probably need to rise sooner and by a bit more than had been anticipated three months ago.

“Were the economy to evolve broadly in line with the February Inflation Report projections, monetary policy would need to be tightened somewhat earlier and by a somewhat greater extent over the forecast period than anticipated at the time of the November Report,” the central bank’s Monetary Policy Committee said.

Sterling rallied against other major currencies after the BoE announcement. The pound was up more than 1 percent against the dollar at 1410 GMT, at $1.4035.

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