LONDON, July 30 (Reuters) - Following is a selection of comments from Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee members since their last meeting.
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MERVYN KING, TESTIMONY TO TREASURY COMMITTEE, JULY 28
'We judge that at present it is right to keep our foot firmly on the accelerator in order to stimulate the economy. As you would expect, there is a debate about quite how hard we should be pressing on the accelerator.'
'The debate is about the appropriate degree of stimulus, not about applying the brakes.'
'I am arguing that we have room to use monetary policy in either direction. I don't want to prejudge where it will need to go. Our view so far has been is that we have not needed to move in either direction, but we are prepared to do so in either direction as seems appropriate.'
'Last week, we learned of the strong 1.1 percent estimate of GDP growth in the second quarter. On the face of it, that is encouraging. But we must be careful not to read too much into one number.'
DAVID MILES' WRITTEN SUBMISSION TO TREASURY COMMITTEE, JULY 28
'Recent events in sovereign debt markets and in bank funding highlight the downside risks. Further asset purchases may be warranted at some point in the future.'
'The economic outlook remains unusually uncertain. Hence, in setting monetary policy it is important to consider both upside and downside risks.'
PAUL FISHER'S WRITTEN SUBMISSION TO TREASURY COMMITTEE, JULY 28
'I expect the economy to evolve broadly in line with the projections embodied in the May Inflation Report. A recovery has been underway since late 2009, and should continue to gather strength, as the effects of the exceptionally large monetary stimulus, the past depreciation of sterling and a prospective recovery in global demand feed through.'
ANDREW SENTANCE, TREASURY COMMITTEE, JULY 28
'I see the policy settings we've got at the moment as quite extreme and providing quite strong stimulus to the economy and that was exactly the right thing to do when we put in place those policies.'
'The UK economy has turned round and measures of nominal demand have picked up particularly strongly ... and we saw the Q2 GDP figures. In my mind those both confirm evidence that has been coming at us from business surveys and other sources for some time.'
PAUL FISHER, TREASURY COMMITTEE, JULY 28
'We are setting up a process for when it comes to the point of tightening policy, we would expect interest rates to be changed first and then we would announce a programme of sales of the assets to take place some time shortly after that but over a period of time to give the markets some certainty of the pace at which we would sell the assets.'
SPENCER DALE, INTERVIEW WITH INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER, JULY 22
'Inflation has come out a little higher than expected, and the news on VAT in the June budget means that the time it will take inflation to get back to target will be pushed out, and I expect it will be above target until the end of next year.'
'Likewise, there are some signs that growth may be softening, again partly reflecting the June budget.'
MINUTES TO BOE'S JULY 7-8 MEETING, PUBLISHED JULY 21
'The Committee considered arguments in favour of a modest easing in the stance of monetary policy. The softening in the medium-term outlook for GDP growth over recent months would put further downwards pressure on inflation, once the impact of temporary factors had waned. Pay growth had remained subdued and there was little sign of a material pickup in medium-term inflation expectations. A further modest monetary stimulus would act to offset the softening in demand prospects and make it more likely that the inflation target would be met in the medium term.
'But there were also arguments in favour of a modest tightening in the stance of monetary policy. Inflation was likely to remain above target for some months and there was a risk that medium-term inflation expectations would rise. The resilience of inflation over recent months had suggested that the downward impact of spare capacity could be weaker than expected and this created uncertainty around the extent to which inflation would fall back in the future.
'On balance, most members thought that it was appropriate to leave the stance of monetary policy unchanged.'
ANDREW SENTANCE, INTERVIEW WITH BBC RADIO, JULY 17
'If we can raise interest rates in a gradual way that will be helpful for the recovery because it will mean that there won't be big shocks.'
DAVID MILES, SPEECH TO BRISTOL BUSINESS FORUM, PUBLISHED JULY 15
'I look forward to the day when it will be appropriate to tighten monetary policy since a return to more normal levels of interest rates would be a welcome sign that economic conditions were also more normal. But I do not think that is where we are today.'
'Without a pick-up in wage inflation I find it hard to think it at all likely that inflation being significantly above target is sustainable. Of course wage pressures may build significantly over the next year or so, though I do not believe this is the most likely outcome. And risks of an extended period of low growth -- which would further weaken those pressures -- are real.'
ANDREW SENTANCE, SPEECH IN READING, JULY 13
''Tightening' may be technically correct as the opposite of 'loosening' but it implies that monetary policy might become objectively tight and restrain the growth of the economy significantly. Again, that is not my view about the policy stance we currently need.'
'In a sense, it's the patient coming out of intensive care and into the recovery ward, and looking at adjusting what the medication might need to be.'
ADAM POSEN, INTERVIEW WITH NEWCASTLE JOURNAL NEWSPAPER, JULY 12
'There is a chance we could slip back into recession. I hope it is not the case.'
'There is going to be a lot of drag on the economy, with the problems of the eurozone and the public sector contraction in the UK. However, the recovery has been under way for almost a year, although it has been slow. We hope it will continue but it cannot be guaranteed.'
(Editing by Ron Askew) Keywords: BRITAIN BOE/COMMENTS
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