BANK of England governor Mark Carney has revealed that Brexit takes up “50 per cent of my time now”.
Mr Carney made clear that while Brexit planning means now less time for other things, the Bank has a responsibility to “manage through the downside if there is a disorderly outcome”.
The governor also defended economic predictions before the Brexit vote which were seen by some pro-Brexit politicians as excessively gloomy. In particular Carney’s comment in May 2016 that the risks of a vote to leave the EU “could possibly include a technical recession”. Technical recession is defined as two consecutive quarters of negative economic growth.
The Bank were proved right on predicting a collapse in the pound in what Mr Carney described as the “easiest call one could make, probably the easiest call I’ve seen in macro in 25 years”. The pound lost around 15 per cent of its value versus the US dollar in the six months following after the Brexit vote.
He also said that the Bank’s expectations for a rise in inflation and a slowdown in economic growth were borne out.
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