BOE Weale: Would Vote For QE Were Inflation To Undershoot

Bank of England policy maker Martin Weale said Thursday he would vote to restart the BOE's asset purchase program if U.K. inflation looked poised to fall below its 2% target

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        "I would consider more asset purchases were warranted if it seemed likely that inflation was substantially going to undershoot the target," Weale said in an interview with Reuters Insider television.

        Weale, who dropped his call for a rise in the BOE's benchmark interest rate at the central bank's August policy meeting, said the outlook for the U.K. economy has worsened in recent weeks and the sovereign debt troubles in the euro-zone are the biggest risk to the economy.

        But he added there are inflationary as well as growth issues facing the U.K. economy.

        "Since the [BOE's August] forecast commodity prices have been more buoyant than we've expected and wage growth has picked slightly more than we'd expected," Weale said.

        "I am not saying that those necessarily offset the worse growth outlook. But we should certainly not assume that if one focuses on inflation that all the news has been one way."