Economist and member of the Bank Of England’s Monetary Policy Committee Catherine Mann poses for a photograph ahead of a speech at Manchester Business School in Manchester, Britain, January 12, 2023. REUTERS/Phil Noble/Files
BUDAPEST, Feb 6 - Bank of England rate-setter Catherine Mann on Monday backed further increases in interest rates and warned that pausing, as some of her colleagues advocate, risked a confusing "policy boogie" if it turned out rates would need to rise again.last week, the BoE's Monetary Policy Committee signalled it was close to pausing a run of increases which began in December 2021.
Mann, consistently the most hawkish member of the MPC, said the risk of under-tightening policy far outweighed the alternative. "We need to stay the course, and in my view the next step in Bank Rate is still more likely to be another hike than a cut or hold," Mann said in a speech delivered to the Lamfalussy Lectures Conference in Budapest.
She criticised the idea of pausing the rate hike cycle at this juncture, a course of action that two of her MPC colleagues - Swathi Dhingra and Silvana Tenreyro - voted for last week.