Bank of England's Huw Pill Says Rate Hike Could Avoid More Aggressive Tightening Later

According to Jin10, Bank of England Chief Economist Huw Pill said raising rates now could reduce the chance that the central bank will later need to take more aggressive steps to curb inflation driven by the Iran war. Pill said raising the bank rate does not necessarily mean the start of a long and aggressive tightening cycle, and that a timely increase could help prevent potentially harmful catch-up nominal dynamics and stop a temporary inflation overshoot from becoming more persistent. Pill and two other Monetary Policy Committee members voted for a rate hike in July, while interest-rate futures traders on Thursday saw a slightly above 15% chance of a 25-basis-point hike at this month's Monetary Policy Committee meeting and more than a 70% chance of a hike at the November meeting.