BoE's Haldane says rate rises last line of defence against bubbles

LONDON (Reuters) – Raising interest rates is the Bank of England‘s last line of defence against asset price bubbles, its chief economist Andy Haldane said on Wednesday.

Haldane said that there was a risk that some financial markets were getting “over-egged” and that this was a concern the central bank had acted on through its regulatory policy.

“As recently as last week, we at the bank took some action overtly with an eye to stop a market – in this case housing – becoming overheated, not today but in future,” he said at a conference hosted by the Financial Times.

“Equally important is that we’ve said at the bank that monetary policy can on occasions have a role to play in insuring against these financial stability risks – not as a first line of defence but sometimes as a last line of defence.”

(Reporting by David Milliken; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

BoE's Haldane says rate rises last line of defence against bubbles