Bank of England could be forced to raise interest rates again, says policymaker

The Bank of England in Threadneedle Street, London. The Bank raised its base rate to 4% on Thursday. Photograph: Amer Ghazzal/Rex/Shutterstock

A senior Bank of England policymaker has warned the central bank could be forced to keep raising interest rates to prevent high levels of inflation from becoming entrenched in the economy.

Catherine Mann, an independent economist on the Bank’s rate-setting monetary policy committee (MPC), said there were “material upside risks” to inflation sticking at higher levels than expected as the impact of the Covid pandemic, Russia’s war in Ukraine and Brexit weigh on the economy.