Mark Carney says Bank of England’s EU referendum input will be “a bit of a yawner”
Bank of England governor Mark Carney has played down the Bank’s analysis of a UK exit from the EU, telling an influential group of MPs it would be "a bit of a yawner".
The Bank is due to publish its findings tomorrow after investigating the potential impact leaving the EU would have on its ability to steer the economy. Carney is giving a speech in Oxford later in the evening.
He told the Treasury Select Committee today:
We have done the analysis, it is completed. The analysis is on the impact of EU membership on the ability of the Bank of England to discharge its statutory responsibilities.
It's a bit of a yawner.
The report was completed by a team of Bank economists led by deputy governor Jon Cunliffe.
Carney caused a stir last year when he said an independent Scotland would have to hand over some control of its government spending if it wanted to keep the pound.
He seemed more concerned about the threat to the Bank’s independence posed by calls to use monetary policy to fund government spending.
Carney said:
The concern shared across all G7 central banks is the need to preserve the operational independence of a central bank the evidence shows – and unfortunately its a long history of sorry evidence – that if there is external influence on policy, particularly monetary policy, that experience has been poor outcomes in terms of inflation, unemployment and broader economic outcomes.