MNI BRIEF: Labour Market Easing Key For Rate Cut - BOE Ramsden

Bank of England Deputy Governor Dave Ramsden said Tuesday his decision at the June meeting was "finely balanced" but that the evidence of weakening in the labour market had been enough to persuade him to vote with the minority for a 25 bps cut.

Speaking at a Barclays event Ramsden said that while the risks to inflation are two-sided he is now attaching more weight to downside risks and that the cumulative evidence suggested continued loosening in the labour market, with the vacancies to unemployment ratio declining and with risk of unemployment rising next year by more than the Bank has assumed.

Ramsden said that if the Monetary Policy Committee had voted to cut Bank Rate to 4% in June it would still have been clearly in restrictive territory and the costs of being wrong and finding inflation was set to come in higher were not great as policy could simply then be left on hold.