LONDON (Reuters) - Economic data over the coming six months will be key to deciding when to raise interest rates, Bank of England policymaker Ian McCafferty said on Monday.
Most economists expect the BoE will raise rates within a year, and some think that one or two policymakers on the nine-member Monetary Policy Committee could vote for a rate rise as soon as August.
McCafferty said in an interview with London radio station LBC that he wanted to see more data before making up his mind.
"It's going to depend critically on how the economy performs over the summer and through the autumn," he said.
"We do think that there's a scope for the economy to grow a little further before we have to start the gradual process of normalisation. That's going to depend on how fast growth is in the second, third and fourth quarters," he added.
(Reporting by David Milliken and Ana Nicolaci da Costa)