BoE's Bean: some UK firms can't pass on higher costs

A number of regional businesses in Britain are unable to pass on higher costs including from higher energy prices, Bank of England Deputy Governor Charlie Bean said in a newspaper interview published on ...

The Bank of England's deputy governor, Charlie Bean, was a bit defensive about the Bank's recent inflation record in a speech he gave in London this morning [44KB PDF]. And well he might be.

We all eat food. So we should all be interested in what's happened to British food prices in the past year or so. The members of the Monetary Policy Committee who appeared before the Treasury Select Committee this morning also have what you might call a professional interest in the subject. Along with other commodity prices, rising food prices have been a key piece of the British inflation puzzle that the Bank of England has been getting wrong.

The prospect of interest rate rises edged closer as one of the Bank of England's Deputy Governors warned that it may have to act if commodity prices continue to rise and inflation becomes embedded.

The Bank of England has no magic bullet to fix the economy and growth will "remain subdued by historical standards", according to deputy governor Charlie Bean.

The Bank of England has not ruled out more asset purchases to help Britain's economy, even if their impact has weakened, the bank's Deputy Governor Charlie Bean has said.

LONDON (Reuters) - Bank of England deputy governor Charlie Bean said on Sunday that there was "reason for some optimism" going forward, but warned against getting overexcited about the latest GDP figures showing Britain pulled out of recession in the third quarter. "We should avoid getting overexcited," Bean told Sky News television, adding that growth could be weak in the fourth quarter. "We do think there's reason for some optimism going forward, some of the headwinds that we've been struggling against in the past couple of years will be abating somewhat," he said. ...

The prospect of more money printing has receded after Charlie Bean, the Bank of England's deputy governor, revealed he had doubts about how much growth the policy would deliver.