LONDON (Reuters) – Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey said he did not think the economy was undergoing a sharp, V-shaped recovery, because of headwinds from a second wave of COVID and underlying public caution about spending and socialising after the pandemic.
“A ‘V’ is really not the way I look at it in terms of what we face going ahead,” Bailey told the House of Lords’ Economic Affairs Committee. “The recovery will take time.”
Economic output at the end of September was probably 9-10% below its level a year earlier, he added, compared with a 22% shortfall at the end of June.
(Reporting by William Schomberg and David Milliken, editing by Estelle Shirbon)