We are already at high level of monetary policy restrictiveness

Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) external member Swati Dhingra said late Monday that the monetary policy restrictiveness is at a “high level” already.

Key quotes

We are already at high level of monetary policy restrictiveness.
Medium-term inflation pressures are easing.
Food prices are taking up, but not seeing the same rise in import costs as before.
UK consumption is unusually weak in Europe given high savings rate.
I think a lot of UK weakness is due.
Consumption spending is not a driver of growth in Britain, unlike US or Eurozone.
Levels of capacity utilization in the UK point to weak demand rather than supply problems.
Everyone on MPC has a different definition of the pace of rate cuts implied by gradual.
My definition of gradual rate cuts does not mean 25 basis points per quarter.
When I look at wage data, I’m not sure what to take from it due to lack of converge of the self-employed and small businesses.
If you can cut rate by 25 basis points at a quarterly pace, you’ll still be in restrictive territory all this year. 

Market reaction 

At the time of writing, the GBP/USD is trading 0.03% lower on the day to trade at 1.2620.