By Jonathan Davies
It would be "foolish to pre-announce" when interest rates will be increase, the Bank of England's deputy governor for monetary policy has told the BBC.
Ben Broadbent said that the bank's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), which makes the decisions on interest rates, has not set a date that it would like to raise rates by.
He told the BBC that comments made by the governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney, which many have taken to suggest that the MPC has set a timeframe, have been misunderstood.
Mr Broadbent's comments come after 'Super Thursday', on which the Bank of England revealed its decision on interest rates, how the MPC voted and its quarterly economic forecast, for the first time.
Mr Broadbent said: "We are responding to things that are essentially... unpredictable.
"And that means that it would not just be impossible, it would be foolish to pre-announce some fixed date of interest rate changes."
He added: "The economy clearly is recovering, but we had the most almighty financial crisis and there is still a bit of spare capacity left.
"There is not that much inflationary pressure at the moment, [although] we expect that to build over time."
