Bank of England (BoE) Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) member Catherine Mann said during European trading hours on Thursday that rising United Kingdom (UK) jobless rate is becoming a major concern. Mann praised January’s inflation data, which showed that both headline and the core Consumer Price Index (CPI) grew moderately.
Remarks
We are getting close to some sense of where monetary policy is balanced between the inflation objective and full employment.
The Unemployment Rate has gone up and that’s very much of a concern.
January’s inflation figures are good from headline perspective and also from core.
With respect to core inflation, not quite as good as we had hoped to see.
Hard to tell whether 2% inflation that we are likely to see in the next few months is in fact a sustainable 2%.
Market reaction
The Pound Sterling (GBP) has negatively reacted to BoE Mann’s comments. GBP/USD posts a fresh almost four-weeks low at 1.3470.