LONDON (MNI) – The Monetary Policy Committee expects UK growth to
be slower in the second half of this year than the first, MPC member
Martin Weale said in an interview on BBC Radio Shropshire.
In the interview, Weale also discussed the feedback he had received
from local business representatives, saying they did not give him the
impression they believed a double dip recession was imminent and
that they had plenty of spare capacity.
Weale, along with the rest of the MPC, is in the West Midlands at
present.
Asked what the MPC thought about the economy Weale said: “We do
think the economy is likely to grow more slowly in the second half of
the year than it did in the first half of the year.”
“That is different from saying we think there is likely to be a
double dip. There is obviously a risk of that but there is always a risk
of something like that,” Weale said.
Weale said local business people had told him: “They have plenty of
spare capacity and they can expand output without necessarily needing to
take more people on.”
Construction industry representatives told Weale that “they are
having problems getting credit from their banks and so on. At the same
time they aren’t giving the sense a double dip is just round the
corner.”
The official was asked for a response on the government’s plans to
regulate banks more and to impose a permanent banking levy. Weale
declined to comment directly on the rights or wrongs of regulatory
plans, saying simply he understood the argument behind it.
–London bureau: +4420 7862 7491; email: drobinson@marketnews.com
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