MARRAKECH, Morocco (Reuters) - Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey said on Friday that future interest rate decisions by the central bank would continue to be tight after officials voted to leave borrowing costs on hold last month by the finest of margins.
Bailey echoed recent comments from other BoE officials who have stressed they are keeping their options open for future rate decisions after the Monetary Policy Committee voted 5-4 to halt its run of back-to-back rate hikes in September.
Only a quarter of economists polled by Reuters late last month thought the MPC would vote to raise Bank Rate again on Nov. 2.
"Our last meeting was such a tight one. And as my colleague (BoE Chief Economist) Huw Pill said this week, they're going to go on being tight ones," Bailey told delegates at the Institute of International Finance annual membership meeting in Marrakech, on the sidelines of International Monetary Fund meetings.
Deputy Governor Ben Broadbent said last week it was an "open question" whether interest rates would rise again.
Bailey said there were clear signs that the BoE was making good progress against high inflation, which cooled to an 18-month low of 6.7% in August.
But there was much more to do, he added.
"The last mile really does lean heavily on... restrictive policy," Bailey said, adding the economic outlook appeared "very subdued".
Britain's potential growth rate - the pace at which the economy can grow without generating excess inflation - was "substantially less" than in the past, something that would continue to weigh on monetary policy, Bailey said.