BoE’s Bailey says efforts to curb inflation likely to take 18 months to 2 years

LONDON (Reuters) – Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey said on Friday that efforts to bring inflation under control were likely to take between 18 months and two years, adding that inflation was “way above where we (want) it to be”.

“Inflation is bad for the least well-off generally and this inflation is particularly bad,” Bailey said in an interview with Newcastle’s The Journal newspaper and its Business Live website.

Bailey said further increases to interest rates were likely in the coming months but said he was hopeful inflation would peak over the winter. His comments were published after official data showed Britain’s economy shrank in the last quarter.

(Reporting by William Schomberg, writing by Muvija M; editing by David Milliken)