A policymaker with the U.K. central bank has warned that interest rates could by four times higher than the current level at this time next year, according to The Daily Telegraph. On Monday, Andrew Sentance, a member of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee, said that rising inflation is putting increasing pressure on policymakers to make strong moves to contain price growth. Sentance warned on rates, “The yield curve suggests getting up to somewhere around about 2% next year.”
Sentance has continued to argue for a half-point increase in the benchmark interest rate that currently sits at a record low of 0.5%, citing inflation that is more than double the central bank’s 2% target. The senior policymaker warned that the country would face “a more difficult situation” if rates remain unchanged, and that a grudual adjustment to policy needs to start soon “in order to get back into a more normal state.”