Speaking at a Treasury Select Committee hearing today, Carney maintained that interest rates are "more likely than not to increase", but added that "we are not on a preset course and of course if risks were to materialise and the global situation were to intensify to the downside, that would have implications for the path of policy."
Discussing possibly measures, Carney said:
“We could cut interest rates towards zero. We could engage in additional asset purchases, including a variety of assets.
“We could also provide a perspective where we could adjust our policy horizon. We could shorten our policy horizon over which we wanted to return inflation to target.”
However, he ruled out negative interest rates, adding:
“We have no intention, no interest in negative interest rates. We have other options and would take very seriously the impact of negative interest rates on financial services and building societies especially."
