Britain’s economic recovery is finally “taking hold”, Mark Carney, governor of the Bank of England, said yesterday as the central bank revised its forecasts of growth sharply higher while saying inflation would remain under firm control.
So rapidly has Britain’s economic data improved, with another large fall in unemployment also announced yesterday, Mr Carney added, “For the first time in a long time, you don’t have to be an optimist to see the glass as half full”.
Setting out the third largest upward revision in the BoE’s forecasts since it gained independence to set monetary policy in 1997, economists noted how much more optimistic the central bank was now than the average of independent economists and other international organisations.