Bank of England must see the job through to bring inflation down: Bailey
The Governor of the Bank of England will stress that unacceptably high inflation is currently his ‘pre-occupation’ in a speech.
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.The Governor of the Bank of England has vowed that the central bank must “see the job through” to quickly bring inflation back down.
Andrew Bailey will stress that “unacceptably high” inflation is currently his “pre-occupation”, in a speech set to be delivered to finance industry bosses and the Chancellor at London’s Mansion House later on Monday evening.
In May, UK Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation struck a hotter-than-expected 8.7% – higher than any other of the world’s richest economies.
The Bank of England has a target to get inflation to 2%, but has previously forecast that it could remain above 5% by the end of the year – despite recent easing in energy prices.
“As you will understand, my pre-occupation at the moment is inflation,” Mr Bailey said.
“It is crucial that we see the job through, meet our mandate to return inflation to its 2% target, and provide the environment of price stability in which the UK economy can thrive.
“This is the best contribution monetary policy can make to the prosperity of the United Kingdom.”
The Governor will also tell bosses that easing food and energy bills will help drive a notable slowdown in the rate of inflation over the rest of the year.
“UK headline inflation is set to fall markedly over the remainder of the year,” he will say.
“This largely owes to lower energy prices as last year’s substantial increases drop out of the annual calculation.
“Food prices should fall too as lower commodity prices feed through to prices in the shops.”
Mr Bailey will also stress that the UK economy has shown “unexpected resilience” in the face of economic shocks.
Inflation peaked at 11.1% late last year and has slowed in recent months, but the Bank of England has hiked interest rates consistently over the past year in an effort to drag inflation down more quickly.