ECONOMICS
Bank of England should stop raising interest rates, says Hunt adviser
Andy Haldane warns economy is unsteady and Britain trails competitors on industrial policy
Andy Haldane said Britons were already facing a squeeze on living standards and that further tightening might push the country into recession
TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER JACK HILL
The Bank of England should “press pause” on raising interest rates because it could risk the economic recovery and leave people facing an even “tighter squeeze”, a senior adviser to Jeremy Hunt has said.
Andy Haldane, a former Bank of England chief economist, said the recovery was “still on pretty unsteady legs” and that raising rates could pushing Britain into recession.
Haldane, who sits on Hunt’s economic advisory council, said the Bank and the government could “take a bit more time” to bring inflation back down. The Bank raised interest rates by a quarter point to 4.5 per cent this month.
Haldane told the New Statesman: “What I’d be doing in this situation is probably pressing the pause button, actually.
“I think there’s a
