BoE Governor Mark Carney delivers a speech titled “From Protectionism to Prosperity” where he also talked about monetary policy. He noted that the current path the economy is going is “consistent with the MPC’s current projection”, with the assumption of a relatively smooth Brexit.
Since the May meeting “international data have been mixed” with robust growth in the US and fading momentum in Eurozone. And there were marked loss of momentum in some merging markets. However, domestically, Carney said “the incoming data have given me greater confidence that the softness of UK activity in the first quarter was largely due to the weather, not the economic climate.”
He pointed to some “number of indicators of household spending and sentiment have bounced back strongly” erratic Q1. Labor market has “remained strong” and there is “widespread evidence that slack is largely used up.” Pay and domestic cost growth have “continued to firm up broadly. And headline inflation is still “expected to rise in the short term” due to energy prices.
The overall impressions from Carney is that he’s rather confidence that economy developed as expected. And that would add to the case for an August rate hike.
Sterling is limited mildly against Dollar and Yen after the speech.
