Carney speech: Underlying trend suggests economy is growing very weakly, close to zero

Additional comments from Bank of England Governor Mark Carney continue to cross the wires as testifies before the Treasury Committee as part of the BOE's inflation report hearings.

"If you look through underlying trend, our judgement is that economy is growing very weakly, close to zero," Carney said. "Our assessment is that preparations for no-deal that have been put in place since November have reduced the worst-case scenario. Stands to reason that if there were more time to prepare for Brexit, more would be accomplished."

Carney further reiterated that in the event of a no-deal it would be likely that the economy would slow, the foreign exchange rate would fall and inflation would rise. "There are substantial uncertainties about the magnitude of those factors," Carney added.

In the meantime, the GBP/USD pair continues to move sideways near the 1.22 mark, adding around 100 pips on the day.