london bank of england policymakers are not inflation nutters but tightening of monetary policy is necessary to prevent surging prices becoming entrenched in the economy the central banks chief economist huw pill said tuesday the banks monetary policy committee raised interest rates by 75 basis points last week its largest hike since 1989 despite warning that the british economy is facing its longest recession since records began were not meant to be inflation nutters we are meant to sort of manage this tradeoff in a way that avoids unnecessary counterproductive maybe disruptions to the real economy pill said at a conference organized by swiss bank ubs  alongside its policy announcement last week the bank took the unusual step of challenging the markets pricing for future interest rate hikes suggesting the terminal rate will likely be below market expectations pill said he was skeptical that frontloading rate hikes would help to temper expectations and produce an immaculate disinflation without any real cost to the economy the bank of england has come under criticism for being too slow off the mark in its efforts to rein in skyhigh inflation i think unfortunately it is the case that the phillips curve has not disappeared theres a debate to be had about what the slope of the phillips curve is and how thats changing but the phillips curve has not disappeared and the weakening of the economy is to some extent a necessary part of the disinflation you need to see he said the phillips curve is an economic model that argues that inflation and unemployment have an inverse correlation pill also emphasized that the weakening of the uk economy thus far was not solely caused by monetary policy with external factors such as surging energy prices and supply shocks eating into household income i think theres a danger which were aware of that we at the bank of england and the mpc will be blamed for the recession the recession was actually driven by other forces and were trying to manage the adjustment to those other forces pill said one of the reasons for central banking independence is we dont have to be popular we can still take the right decision and i think taking the right decisions is what our core ambition should be