QUOTES-BoE holds press conference after wrong-footing markets

"The question is, and this is one that I think we have to judge every time we meet to deliberate monetary policy, is when we look at the sort of projected length of that temporary or transitory period, does it start to cause concerns about whether that will become embedded in expectations and what follows from that." BAILEY ON TIMING OF BOE V THE FED "It is important also to look at the relative difference of the two economies.

The Bank of England kept interest rates on hold on Thursday, dashing investors' expectations for a hike that would have made it the first of the world's big central banks to raise rates after the COVID-19 pandemic. Below are quotes from the Bank's press conference:

ANDREW BAILEY, GOVERNOR "It was a very close call."

"We spent many hours, we always spend many hours, but we seem to spend even more many hours this time over it, as we should, and we are in a situation where the calls are close, they're quite hard." BAILEY ON INFLATION

"There is no fixed unit of time that is transitory. For me at least, it is a behavioural thing particularly in the context in which we are operating which is, the longer ... that rise in inflation goes on, the more there is a risk that it gets translated into inflation expectations." BAILEY ON ENERGY PRICES

"Things like energy prices, go up and go down again, they don't tend to stay higher, certainly not permanently at very high levels. "The question is, and this is one that I think we have to judge every time we meet to deliberate monetary policy, is when we look at the sort of projected length of that temporary or transitory period, does it start to cause concerns about whether that will become embedded in expectations and what follows from that."

BAILEY ON TIMING OF BOE V THE FED "It is important also to look at the relative difference of the two economies. The UK is a much more open economy."

BEN BROADBENT ON ENERGY "I want to emphasise here quite how important the path of energy prices is... a really key assumption. What happens to this is one of the things that makes the decision difficult because it's so important to the outlook for inflation."