Bank of England Deputy Governor: Weak Economy Lowers Sticky Inflation Risk, No Need to Raise Rates Yet

Bank of England Deputy Governor Briden downplayed the risk that a surge in inflation will spread to wages and corporate pricing behavior, saying there is not much reason to raise interest rates. According to Jin10, she said higher borrowing costs for companies and households since the outbreak of the Middle East war, along with weak economic performance, mean the Bank of England may not need to act to curb price pressures. Briden is among the more dovish members of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee and has supported keeping rates at 3.75% at the past three meetings. She said she was confident inflation would now ease back to the 2% target unless war-related factors intervene. She added, however, that she would support a rate increase if signs emerged of prices feeding back into each other and creating a persistent inflation spiral. She also said cyber security risks exposed by recent advances in AI models have become one of the Bank of England's key areas of concern.