LONDON (Reuters) – Wage growth in Britain is picking up and interest rates will not remain at their record low 0.5 percent indefinitely, a Bank of England policymaker said in a newspaper interview published on Wednesday.
Martin Weale, a member of the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee, said any rate rises would be “relatively gradual”.
“My sense is things are going quite well,” Weale told the Reading Post in an interview.
“What we are starting to see is that wage growth is starting to pick up and that’s very encouraging because there has been a squeeze on wages and for growth to be sustained we do need income and wages to be rising,” he added.
The newspaper also quoted Weale as saying growth last year appeared to be driven by consumer spending, but investment now seemed to be playing a bigger part and he hoped to see more of a pick-up in exports.
“Obviously, as the economy recovers, the interest rate isn’t going to stay at half a percent indefinitely,” said Weale, adding that, as the economy returned to normal, interest rates should also return to “more normal levels”.
(Reporting by Andy Bruce; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
BoE's Weale sees British wage growth picking up
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