WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A sharp fall in British consumer price inflation in September was driven by more volatile components, Bank of England rate-setter member Megan Greene said on Tuesday when asked how it might affect her vote next month.
Consumer price inflation fell to a three-year low of 1.7% in September from 2.2% in August, below forecasts in a Reuters poll of economists. The services component dropped to 4.9% from 5.6%.
“Services inflation … was the biggest surprise, actually in the latest print,” she said in a discussion with the Atlantic Council think-tank on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund’s annual meetings in Washington.
“The biggest driver of that, though, was the volatile accommodation transport category … so I wouldn’t put too much weight on that,” she said.
Greene voted against the BoE’s first rate cut of its current loosening cycle in August.
(Reporting by David MillikenAdditional reporting by Suban Abdulla in LondonEditing by David Goodman and Gareth Jones)
