UK inflation drop driven by volatile factors, says BoE’s Greene
A sharp fall in British consumer price inflation in September was driven by more volatile components, Bank of England rate-setter member Megan Greene said on Tuesday when asked how it might affect her vote next month.
Consumer price inflation fell to a three-year low of 1.7 per cent in September from 2.2 per cent in August, below forecasts in a Reuters poll of economists. The services component dropped to 4.9 per cent from 5.6 per cent.
“Services inflation … was the biggest surprise, actually in the latest print,” she said in a discussion with the Atlantic Council think-tank on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund’s annual meetings in Washington.
“The biggest driver of that, though, was the volatile accommodation transport category … so I wouldn’t put too much weight on that,” she said.
Greene voted against the BoE’s first rate cut of its current loosening cycle in August.