LONDON (Reuters) - British consumer price inflation could turn negative around the end of this year but that would not represent the start of a period of damaging deflation, Bank of England Deputy Governor Ben Broadbent said.
Asked about the possibility of inflation turning negative on a BoE online presentation with its regional agents, he said the BoE's best guess for inflation was around zero in the fourth quarter, so there was a chance of prices falling below that.
"I wouldn't describe that... as a sort of deflation" that became entrenched and pushed down wage growth to very low levels, he said. "That's always something we watch for."