LONDON (Reuters) – High levels of interest rates are not a key reason behind weakness in British business investment, Bank of England Chief Economist Huw Pill said on Friday.
“When you ask about business (investment) intentions, the role played by the level of interest rates – whether interest rates are 5% or 4% – that is not something that people are screaming about,” Pill said at a conference hosted by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.
Pill said business investment had been depressed by high levels of uncertainty since the 2008 global financial crisis, including from Brexit, the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
(Reporting by David Milliken; Editing by William Schomberg)