00:00You know, of course, I have voted to hold rates, and I think what we're seeing in the Monetary Policy Committee is a range of views on the balance between prospects for activity and prospects for inflation.
00:13My view is that inflation, the scenario that we painted earlier this year of the high risk of inflation being persisting for longer, I believe that scenario is playing out.
00:24Now, I am aware of the risks on the downside, and so I put some weight on that, but I put much more weight on the inflation scenario and inflation persisting.
00:35In your personal view, therefore, and just your view, not the committee's view, was it a mistake to cut rates? Have we already loosened policy too much?
00:44I do think that a policy is relatively loose compared to what the balance of inflation prospects is relative to activity.
00:52So I voted to hold rates, and so I think in some sense...
00:57You think rates should be higher?
00:58No. I think rates are on hold. I think rates being on hold is appropriate for the current period.
01:04I would not see that tighter rates is appropriate, in part because if they tighten more, then we have to loosen later.
01:13And more than a year ago, I talked about that being a policy boogie.
01:17And I thought that's not a good thing for monetary policy makers to do.
01:23So I think a hold is appropriate at this point.
Be the first to comment