Bean - who steps down today - spoke to Sky News this morning and said interest rates could rise towards the 5 per cent mark, which he says is traditionally considered “neutral”.
He added:
“I would not want to say it will be back there in ten years, but it might be reasonable to think that, in that very long term, you would go back to 5%, but it is probably quite a long way down the road.”
Last week governor Mark Carney said that 2.5% is likely to become the level for base rate by 2017, a forecast that deputy governor Bean says is 'sensible'.
