BoE's Haldane Sees No Need To Rush For Policy Tightening: Report

(RTTNews) - There is no need for an interest rate hike soon in the U.K., Bank of England's Chief Economist Andy Haldane told BBC Newsnight.

Haldane repeated that rates could go up or down in the future and that he thought the current level was appropriate for the near term.

At the July monetary policy meeting, more members moved closer to vote for a rate hike. For those members, Greece was a material factor in holding the rate at 0.50 percent.

Haldane said he saw economic "headwinds" such as demographic change, the overhang of high debt and its aftermath and the rise of short-termism that could mean economic growth in the future is weaker than in the past.