Euro zone weakness will be only one factor that helps to determine when the Bank of England raises interest rates, its Governor Mark Carney said in interviews broadcast today.
Mr Carney told CNN that weakness in the euro zone had been a major theme at the International Monetary Fund's meetings in Washington, but that Britain's recovery had been driven primarily by domestic factors.
"The only difficulty that is caused by Europe is that it provides an additional drag on growth. But that doesn't dictate the monetary policy of the Bank of England," he said.
Carney added that the BoE had already forecast that the rapid UK recovery would slow slightly towards the end of 2014, and would continue to keep a close eye on domestic inflation pressures that might come from the labour market.
Carney said in a separate interview with CNBC television that weaker global demand was producing a "very benign global inflationary environment and that is something that we do certainly take into account."
He said the slowdown in Europe's recovery did not compare with the scale of the crisis in the single currency zone in recent years when Greece was at risk of dropping out of the euro zone.
"This is a chronic phase of European adjustment," Carney told CNBC. "We're not back in the acute phase, back into that period of a couple of years ago," he added.
