The “whole country should be grateful” that Mark Carney’s staying until 2019, says Bank of England’s deputy governor
The Bank of England's deputy governor Dr Ben Broadbent has said "the whole country should be grateful" that Mark Carney's staying in place for the next few years.
A weekend of speculation over the Bank of England governor's future was brought to a halt by Carney earlier this week when he said he'd be staying in place until 2019. Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Broadbent was asked what were his chances of stepping into the top role.
He said: "Let me first say I'm extremely happy the current governor is staying. I think the whole country should be grateful that he is. As you know he's staying on another almost three years."
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"That is too far away for me to be thinking about what I'm doing then, I've got quite enough to absorb me at the moment," he added.
Paddy Power's running a book and currently has Broadbent on odds of 7/4, but the deputy governor wouldn't be drawn on his future. "I haven't even thought about it," he insisted.
He also discussed the relationship between the BoE and politicians; Theresa May criticised the effect of quantitative easing at the Conservative Party Conference, though she recently said Carney was "the best man for the job".
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Broadbent went the diplomatic route. "We live in a democracy, people can comment on the way that all our policies are conducted," he said. "It is our job to be open and transparent about what we do. For our part, we're just focused on the job. We have a remit given to us by parliament and we look at all the economic evidence, and as economists regarding that remit we take the best possible decision we can at any point in time."