Bank of England Deputy Governor refuses to rule out negative interest rates

Deputy Governor Dave Ramsden refused to rule out negative interest rates today.

“I’m not going to get into speculation about where we might be in November but we do have further headroom,” Ramsden told CNBC in an interview, a day after the Bank of England said it saw no immediate case to cut interest rates below zero.

On Thursday the BoE explored the use of negative interest rates in its quarterly Monetary Policy Report - the first time it had done so in the Bank’s flagship publication.

“They are part of the toolbox, we’re not actively planning for negative rates or indeed using them. We’re using tried and tested policies,” Ramsden said.

The BoE cut interest rates to just 0.1% in March and expanded its bond-buying plan to almost $1 trillion.

Yesterday its nine monetary policymakers all voted for no policy changes as they sketched out a slow path to recovery.

“We are forecasting that the recovery continues, we think the pace of the recovery will slow,” Ramsden added.

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