The Bank of England’s deputy governor for monetary policy has told the BBC it would be “foolish to pre-announce” a date for an interest rate increase.
On Thursday, the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee voted to keep interest rates at their current historic low of 0.5%.
Deputy governor Ben Broadbent said the Committee had no specific time in mind for a rise and comments by governor Mark Carney had been misinterpreted.
The cost of borrowing has remained unchanged for 78 months.
The ultra-low interest rate regime has boosted the housing market as homeowners enjoy record low mortgages rates, but penalised savers whose returns have dwindled to almost nothing.
Speaking to Radio 5 live’s Wake up to Money programme, Mr Broadbent said: “We [the MPC] are responding to things that are essentially… unpredictable.
“And that means that it would not just be impossible, it would be foolish to pre-announce some fixed date of interest rate changes.”
Mr Broadbent said he saw no “urgency” to increase interest rates at present.
He added: “The economy clearly is recovering, but we had the most almighty financial crisis and there is still a bit of spare capacity left.
“There is not that much inflationary pressure at the moment, [although] we expect that to build over time.”
