BoE Deputy Governor Ben Broadbent reiterated in a CNBC interview that the central bank’s forecasts were “conditioned on an assumption that there will be a deal” on Brexit. In particular, there would be a “transition period agreed”. And to him, a Brexit deal is still “the most likely outcome”. However, he also emphasized that “the sequence of events over the next two to three months could change the outlook materially,”
On recent volatility in Pound exchange rate he noted “obviously, over time, every day there are headlines, positive, negative, which will send the currency in particular in one direction or the other.”
On the economy, He said that “even though GDP (gross domestic product) growth has been weaker than certainly pre-crisis rates, it’s been strong enough to allow the unemployment rate to fall further to reach 40-year lows and that in turn has been strong enough to push our wage growth which is momentarily higher since any time since the crisis,”
He added that “we’ve certainly seen stronger figures, not just in the official data but in many of the pay surveys, than we’ve seen for many years.” And, the MPC “always believed that the same old rules applied — that as the labor market tightened you would begin to see faster wage growth, and that’s indeed what we’ve seen.”
While Broadbent was still optimistic on Brexit deal, the developments from the weekend were negative. Prime Minister Theresa May has called off an special cabinet meeting on Brexit today, due to objections to her plan from within the party. Fresh selling is seen in the Pound on news that the extra EU summit is now ruled out as there won’t be enough progress to make it meaningful.
