Catherine Mann News

Seven Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) members voted in favour of the interest rate cut, while two preferred a 50 bps snip, as the UK's central bank cited «substantial progress on disinflation» as a key factor behind the decision.  As a result, interest rates have now been lowered from 4.75% to 4.5%, marking a 20-month low for interest rates and the third cut in just over six months.  Bank of England slashes interest rates by 25bps to lowest level in 18 months However, markets were taken by surprise after Catherine Mann, who has repeatedly voted against lowering interest rates in re...

Speaking to the FT's Economics Show podcast, Catherine Mann said the potential for large increases to wages in the coming year is «a problem for next year».  Bank of England cuts interest rates by 25 basis points to 5% Headline inflation hit the the BoE's target rate of 2% back in June, but Mann argued that the UK should avoid being «seduced» into believing that the ongoing struggle against inflationary pressures has finally ceased.  «Prices on services continue to be increasing and by and large, services prices never fall,» Mann said, meaning that wages will have to continue to ri...

Speaking to the FT's Economics Show podcast, Catherine Mann said the potential for large increases to wages in the coming year is «a problem for next year».  Bank of England cuts interest rates by 25 basis points to 5% Headline inflation hit the the BoE's target rate of 2% back in June, but Mann argued that the UK should avoid being «seduced» into believing that the ongoing struggle against inflationary pressures has finally ceased.  «Prices on services continue to be increasing and by and large, services prices never fall,» Mann said, meaning that wages will have to continue to ri...

dollar fell a touch on Thursday although moves were largely subdued ahead of a U.S. inflation report due later in the day, while sterling firmed on receding expectations for an August rate cut from the Bank of England (BoE). The British pound rose to a one-month high of $1.28545 in early Asia trade, extending a 0.48% gain from the previous session after comments from BoE policymakers caused markets to scale back bets for an easing cycle to begin next month.

But the decision was not unanimous, as the nine members of the Monetary Policy Committee were split. Seven voted to hold rates and two opted to cut by 0.25 percentage points to 5%. Governor Andrew Bailey, Sarah Breeden, Ben Broadbent, Megan Greene, Jonathan Haskel, Catherine Mann and Huw Pill all voted in favour of the proposition. The two diverging members were Swati Dhingra and Dave Ramsden. The decision comes as inflation remained above the Bank's 2% target at 3.2%. How is potential central bank monetary policy divergence affecting asset allocation? Bailey had previously sign...

Speaking to the FT, the MPC member explained that he favours a slow start to cutting rates, and that the road to rate cuts will be a «long, slow process». He said: «Although the fall in headline inflation is very good news, it is not informative about what we really care about: what we really care about is the persistent and the underlying inflation. „I think cuts are a long way off.“ BoE rate setter Catherine Mann: Markets are pricing in 'too many' cuts The rate setter said he considers himself a „gradualist“ rather than an „activist“ when it comes to monetary policy, as inflat...

In an interview with Bloomberg, Mann discussed the rationale behind her decision to hold rates at the current level of 5.25% in the March MPC meeting. Bank of England holds rates at 5.25% as MPC consensus grows She expressed concern about financial markets easing «too much» in anticipation of rate cuts, stating that this was her primary reason for voting to hike rates in the February meeting. «I think that markets are a bit too complacent about how long they think the Bank of England will hold rates,» she said. Bank of England's Andrew Bailey: Rate cuts are 'in play' for MPC mee...

As Fed policymakers stuck to their path of lowering rates this year, the Bank of England also moved closer to cuts. Here are some of the charts that appeared on Bloomberg this week on the latest developments in the global economy:

By William Schomberg and Suban Abdulla

Her original stint was supposed to come to an end in August this year, but her reappointment will see her continue as an MPC member until August 2027. Mann first joined the MPC in September 2021. Prior to this, she was the global chief economist at Citibank for three years, and worked as chief economist and G20 finance deputy at the OECD between 2014 and 2017. The Treasury explained MPC member reappointments are not automatic and they are considered on a case-by-case basis. Mann's reappointment was due to factors including the «diversity of the current committee and its balance of ski...

LONDON (Reuters) — Britain has a long way to go for inflation pressures to be consistent with the Bank of England's 2% target, one of the central bank's policymakers, Catherine Mann, said on Monday.

Catherine Mann (pictured) said financial conditions had eased 'too much already' since September, in part as markets now 'soon expect' cuts.

Andrew Bailey (pictured), governor of the Bank of England

Catherine Mann (pictured) said it was important to recognise 'there is no no climate change scenario to fall back on' when it comes to monetary policy.

Catherine Mann is a member of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee

By William Schomberg, Andy Bruce and Suban Abdulla

Bank of England halted its long run of interest rate increases on Thursday as the British economy slowed, but it said it was not taking a recent fall in inflation for granted. A day after a surprise slowing in Britain's fast pace of price growth, the BoE's Monetary Policy Committee voted by a narrow margin of 5-4 to keep Bank Rate at 5.25%. Four members — Jon Cunliffe, Megan Greene, Jonathan Haskel and Catherine Mann — voted to raise rates to 5.5%. It was the first time since December 2021 that the BoE did not increase borrowing costs. «There are increasing signs of some impact of tighter monetary policy on the labour market and on momentum in the real economy more generally,» the MPC said in a statement. It cut its forecast for economic growth in the July-September period to just 0.1% from August's forecast of 0.4% and noted clear signs of weakness in the housing market. Growth for the rest of the year was likely to be weaker than previous forecasts, the BoE said. Record growth in workers' pay, which has been a big concern for the central bank, was not backed up by other measures of the labour market, it noted, suggesting the BoE's policymakers expected it to slow down soon. «CPI inflation is expected to fall significantly further in the near term, reflecting lower annual energy inflation, despite the renewed upward pressure from oil prices,» the BoE said. But it said services inflation was expected to remain elevated. The BoE's decision to pause its rate hikes came a day after the U.S. Federal Reserve also opted to keep borrowing costs on hold.

Bank of England halted its long run of 14 straight interest rate hikes on Thursday as the British economy slowed, but it said it was not taking a recent fall in inflation for granted. A day after a surprise slowing in Britain's fast pace of price growth, the BoE's Monetary Policy Committee voted by a narrow margin of 5-4 to keep Bank Rate at 5.25%. Four members — Jon Cunliffe, Megan Greene, Jonathan Haskel and Catherine Mann — voted to raise rates to 5.5%. It was the first time since December 2021 that the BoE did not increase borrowing costs. «There are increasing signs of some impact of tighter monetary policy on the labour market and on momentum in the real economy more generally,» the MPC said in a statement. It cut its forecast for economic growth in the July-September period to just 0.1% from August's forecast of 0.4% and noted clear signs of weakness in the housing market. Growth for the rest of the year was likely to be weaker than previous forecasts, the BoE said. Record growth in workers' pay, which has been a big concern for the central bank, was not backed up by other measures of the labour market, it noted, suggesting the BoE's policymakers expected it to slow down soon. «CPI inflation is expected to fall significantly further in the near term, reflecting lower annual energy inflation, despite the renewed upward pressure from oil prices,» the BoE said. But it said services inflation was expected to remain elevated. The BoE's decision to pause its rate hikes came a day after the U.S. Federal Reserve also opted to keep borrowing costs on hold.

Investing.com — The U.S. dollar edged higher in early European trade Tuesday, reversing some of the previous session’s sharp losses as traders revised their positions before data showing a potential rise in U.S. inflation. 

Investing.com — European stock markets traded in a mixed fashion Tuesday, with investors digesting U.K. jobs and Spanish inflation data ahead of the latest policy-setting meeting by the European Central Bank later in the week.

Catherine Mann said she would “rather err on the side of over-tightening”.