Britain's economy is likely to grow less than the Bank of England forecast earlier this month as Brexit uncertainty hurts investment and productivity, Deputy Governor Dave Ramsden said.

Ramsden said rates would need to rise if Brexit went smoothly, but a disruptive Brexit would make the right path for monetary policy an open question.

Even if Brexit does go smoothly, it would be unlikely to dispel all business uncertainty, he said, so investment might pick up less than the BoE had forecast, hurting short-run growth and the economy's longer-run productive capacity.

"Relative to the best collective judgement expressed in the MPC's central forecast I am ... a little more pessimistic on GDP growth than my colleagues on the MPC," he told.

The BoE forecast this month that the economy would grow by 1.5% this year and 1.6% in 2020 if Brexit goes smoothly.