The governor of the Bank of England has listened to the concerns of Belfast businesses on a visit to the city as the UK economy faces up to one of its most difficult periods on record.
Andrew Bailey took centre stage at a business breakfast hosted by Belfast Chamber and attended by business leaders from a range of sectors.
The visit comes days after the bank chief warned that consumers in the UK face a historic shock to their incomes as a result of the hike in energy prices as a result of the war in Ukraine.
Speaking at an event in Brussels on Monday Mr Bailey also warned of the growing chance of stagflation as a result of rapidly rising inflation - which has already hit a 30-year high of 6.2% and is expected to continue higher - and slowing growth.
The Belfast Chamber event heard from the governor about the challenges the bank’s Monetary Policy Committee, which is tasked with keeping inflation at 2% by manipulating interest rates, faces.
“Belfast Chamber are delighted to have been able to host this engagement between some of our members and the Governor of the Bank of England during his visit to Northern Ireland,” Belfast Chamber Chief Executive Simon Hamilton said. “Belfast Chamber strongly believes that our city’s economy has a bright future ahead of it but issues around labour supply, business costs and the cost of living are worrying and most definitely impacting upon our members.
“The opportunity to hear directly from the Governor and share with him the experiences of businesses in Belfast was invaluable at a time when our economy is emerging from the pandemic but also facing a number of new challenges”.
The Bank of England began raising interest rates from an historic low of 0.1% in December 2021 to the current level of 0.75% currently. The next meeting of the MPC is on 5 th May 2022 when a further rate hike is expected. However, although raising rates tends to drag inflation down, the risk of slowing economic growth may temper an aggressive interest rate increase.
