The Bank of England (BoE) released its Inflation Letter on Thursday. The central bank expects the consumer price inflation in the U.K. to be at around zero in the second and third quarters this year before starting to increase towards the end of 2015.

The consumer price inflation declined to 0.5% in December. The decline was driven by falling oil prices.

The BoE Governor Mark Carney said that he current period of low inflation was positive for the British economy.

The BoE said that it could lower interest rates below 0.5% or could expand its £375 billion asset buying programme if inflation remained below target for a longer period.

The central bank upgraded its growth forecast for this year to 2.9% from 2.6%. The growth in 2016 is expected to be 2.9%.

Carney noted that the BoE could hike its interest rate sooner than expected.