An increase in Britain’s rock-bottom interest rates is not guaranteed although households should prepare for higher borrowing costs, Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said in comments published on Saturday.
“If we think there is a prospect, a possibility – that’s a possibility not a certainty – of rate rises, then that is far, far better to let the British people know so they can prepare,” he said in an interview with the Mail on Sunday newspaper.
“If events mean that does not happen and rate rises are not appropriate, then we will do the right thing and we will not adjust rates,” Carney was quoted as saying.
The Bank of England cut interest rates to a record low of 0.5 percent in 2009 and has kept them there ever since, even as Britain’s economy recovered strongly over the past two years.
Carney has previously said that a decision about when to raise rates would become clearer around the turn of the year.
