LONDON, April 17 (Reuters) – Bank of England Chief Economist Huw Pill said on Friday that the central bank’s main focus should be getting inflation to its 2% target.
“In my thinking, for all the discussion about trade-offs, which is there and we have to take into account, I think the primacy of keeping inflation towards target and keeping it there needs to be emphasised,” Pill said at a roundtable discussion hosted by Barclays bank in Washington.
BoE Governor Andrew Bailey told Reuters on April 1 that the central bank had to keep a clear focus on risks to growth and jobs as well as inflation when making its next decision on rates.
Pill said the fallout from the Middle East conflict and the rise in energy prices represented a real shock to the economy that monetary policy could not counter.
“To the extent that’s permanent, so you can’t just smooth your way through it, there will need to be a real adjustment for that, and ultimately monetary policy cannot deliver that real adjustment,” he said.
(Reporting by Andy Bruce; writing by Suban Abdulla)
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