andrew bailey governor of the bank of england boe during the monetary policy report news conference at the banks headquarters in the city of london uk on thursday may 11 2023 london bank of england governor andrew bailey on thursday defended an aboutturn in the banks uk growth forecast saying its biggest upgrade ever reflected the rapidly shifting economic landscape at its policy meeting earlier thursday the central bank said it no longer expects the uk to enter into recession this year months earlier it had predicted the county would face its longestever recession which it then said would likely be shallower that initially thought the bank said thursday that uk gdp was expected to be flat over the first half of this year growing 09 by the middle of 2024 and 07 by mid2025 at its prior meeting in february it said uk gdp was projected to decline by around 075 over the second half of 2022 it may be the biggest upgrade weve ever done bailey told cnbcs joumanna bercetche still he insisted that the overall forecast remained weak the level is still quite low though lets be honest he added the bank has been criticized for failing to provide accurate growth forecasts which could stymy its efforts to combat still high inflation however bailey said the forecasts were based on conditional data which is subject to frequent and significant fluctuations they are conditional on financial market prices theyre conditional on commodity prices theyre conditional on government policies so as those conditions change we change our forecasts he said we have deal with all these things which is why our forecasts do change and do evolve he said