BoE’s Mann says Omicron could hit consumer confidence

BoE policymaker Catherine Mann said on Tuesday that the newly detected Omicron coronavirus variant could hit consumer confidence, which would weaken the economy’s recovery from its historic pandemic hit.

“It’s a particular question mark here as to whether or not that (Omicron) is going to reduce consumer confidence and leave us again in a situation of somewhat of a slacker demand for spending than we might have thought going forward,” Mann said in a question-and-answer event hosted by Barclays (LON:BARC).

But she also said the impact of Omicron on consumers could slow a shift in spending towards services which had been expected to slow inflation.

Mann voted this month to keep the BoE’s main interest rate on hold at 0.1% but was in a minority calling for an early end to the BoE’s 875 billion-pound ($1.17 trillion) government bond purchase programme.

($1 = 0.7498 pounds)