First-time Buyer
BoE’s Dale: Recovery has ‘number of years to go’
The UK economy is heading in the right direction but there are a “number of years to go” before a full-blown recovery can be called, Bank of England (BoE) chief economist Spencer Dale has said.
“We had a very deep recession, we have a number of years to go”, he told the BBC.
Dale added that interest rates will remain low for what he said would be a “sustained period”.
He also tempered talk of a housing market bubble, though pointed out the Bank is keeping a close eye on house prices. “We know that the housing market can quickly go from normal levels to overheating,” he said.
The housing market has been boosted by government-led iniatives such as Help to Buy, sparking talk of a potential house price bubble, though some economists have downplayed the threat.
Spencer Dale sits on the BoE’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), which recently agreed to maintain interest rates at their historic low of 0.5%. Minutes from the committee’s November meeting showed the nine members all voted for the base rate to remain unchanged.
The Bank also reiterated that, though its governer, Mark Carney, had suggested a rate rise could be on the cards if unemployment fell to 7% or below, this was not a set-in-stone trigger.
