The Bank of England (BoE) Governor Mark Carney was speaking in the Economics Affairs Committee in the House of Lords in Britain's parliament on Tuesday. He said that consumer price inflation will decline to around zero in the coming months and stay there for much of the rest of the year. Carney added that decline in consumer inflation was driven by declines in energy and food prices, particularly lower oil prices.

The BoE governor noted it would be "extremely foolish" to ease the monetary policy in an attempt to boost inflation caused by falling oil prices.

Carney also said that the labour market strengthened, and there are increasing signs that wages picking up.