Martin Weale, one of the members of the Monetary Policy Committee at the Bank of England, which is responsible for setting the Bank Base Rate (BBR), has re-iterated that the Bank may keep BBR stable even if the rate of unemployment falls below 7%.

The Bank Governor Mark Carney indicated in August that he would not consider increasing the cost of borrowing until the unemployment rate had fallen to that level.

Weale was speaking after the central bank’s quarterly inflation report indicated unemployment rate could fall to 7% earlier than expected.

Weale stressed no rise is automatic:

“I am comfortable to stick to the guidance we have offered, instead of claiming too much insight about the future.

“Nevertheless, it is perfectly possible that, as time moves on, the right thing to do will be to keep the Bank Rate at 0.5% even when unemployment has dropped below our 7% threshold.”

Earlier this week Bank of England governor Mark Carney said Bank statisticians foresee a 40% chance unemployment will reach the 7% threshold by the end of next year. He added there is a 60% chance it will happen by the end of 2015.