LONDON (Reuters) -British government measures to lower households' energy bills by 150 pounds ($199) a year may help lower the public's inflation expectations but the policy implication is unclear, Bank
of England policymaker Megan Greene said on Thursday.
Greene said policymakers typically would look through measures that only led to a one-off fall in inflation rather than caused year-on-year falls in prices.
But elevated household inflation expectations meant it would be helpful for the BoE if the measure did shift households' expectations for future inflation lower, she said at a London conference hosted by Irish financial services company Goodbody.
Greene voted against the BoE's last quarter-point rate cut in August and earlier this month she said she did not think current interest rates of 4% were "meaningfully restrictive" and that she remained concerned about future wage growth.
On Wednesday, finance minister Rachel Reeves set out 26 billion pounds ($34 billion) of tax rises in her annual budget.
Government forecasters estimate her measures will lower inflation by 0.4 percentage points in the next financial year but add 0.1 percentage points to price growth in the two years after.
Financial markets price in a more than 90% chance of a quarter-point BoE rate cut on December 18 after the Monetary Policy Committee's next meeting and then one or two further rate cuts in 2026, according to LSEG data on Thursday.
($1 = 0.7555 pounds)
(Reporting by David Milliken, Editing by Sam Tabahriti)
