Bank of England's Haldane sees no need for rush to raise rates - BBC

LONDON (Reuters) - The Bank of England's chief economist, Andy Haldane, said he did not see the need to move quickly to raise interest rates because Britain's labour market is still recovering from the financial crisis and risks remain in the global economy. "There is no rush to move rates from where they are right now," Haldane told BBC television in an interview broadcast on Friday. Haldane is considered to be the member of the Bank's nine-strong Monetary Policy Committee who is most reluctant to raise interest rates. They have sat at a record low of 0.5 percent since 2009. In June, Haldane said the BoE was as likely to need to cut rates as to raise them in future. Yet financial markets expect a rate rise in the first half of 2016 and some economists say it could come as soon as November this year. BoE Governor Mark Carney said last week that a decision on when to increase borrowing costs would come into sharper relief around the turn of the year. Minutes of an MPC meeting in early July, published on Wednesday, showed a growing number of policymakers felt the decision about when to raise rates was "more finely balanced" but the turmoil in Greece at the time was a big factor against a hike. Many economists expect a minority of MPC members to vote to raise rates at their meeting in August, ending a period of unity in support of no change which has lasted since January. (Writing by William Schomberg; Editing by Chris Reese and Grant McCool)