The Bank of England’s June Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting passed uneventfully as expected. In general, the committee continues to paint a fairly optimistic view of the ongoing recovery of the UK economy while remaining mindful of downside risks. There were no tweaks to either interest rate policy or balance sheet and, once again, only Andy Haldane, the Chief Economist at the Bank, voted to reduce the total targeted stock of asset purchases. As this was Haldane’s last meeting, and given data has generally surprised to the upside, there was some uncertainty as to whether any other MPC members might join him in the more hawkish camp.
However, as it turns out the MPC seems committed to the current path and guidance. We will gain more information from the August Monetary Policy Report but it seems likely that only following the conclusion of the furlough scheme in September will they gather more certainty around the outlook for the economy and labour market.
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