BoE Pill: Current emphasis on sufficiently restrictive policy for sufficiently long

In a speech in South Africa today, BoE Chief Economist Huw Pill underscored the importance of seeing “the job through” to ensure a “lasting and sustainable return of inflation to the 2% target,” highlighting the critical balance the bank must strike as it’s now in the territory of restrictive policy.

Pill acknowledged the perils of “doing too much,” and “inflicting unnecessary damage on employment and growth”.

Nevertheless, the present emphasis, he noted, is on maintaining “sufficiently restrictive” policy for “sufficiently long” to assure a sustainable return to the inflation target, echoing the language used in the MPC’s last statement.