LONDON (Reuters) - Bank of England policymaker Kristin Forbes said the central bank had no concrete evidence that softer British economic data was all down to uncertainty around June's Brexit referendum, in an interview published on Friday.
Forbes told the Belfast Telegraph during a visit to Northern Ireland that she believed the uncertainty was weighing on businesses and their investment plans, and that the doubt could be lifted quite quickly after a "remain" vote.
But she added: "We don't have concrete evidence that some of the softening we are seeing now is all referendum-related and uncertainty related, and there is a chance other things are going on."
Forbes also said it would be "very hard to predict" how a vote to leave the European Union would affect sterling and the chances of the BoE hitting its 2 percent inflation target in two years' time, as changes to trade deals would have an effect.