Bank of England Governor pushed back on Wednesday against any discussion of cutting interest rates, but said he was "optimistic" about getting inflation back to target within the next two years.

"It's really too early to be talking about cutting rates.... We are very clear, we are not talking about that," Bailey said at a conference hosted by the Central Bank of Ireland.

Last week the BoE kept interest rates on hold at a 15-year high of 5.25% and said monetary policy would need to remain restrictive for an extended period, a stance which Bailey reiterated on Wednesday.

However, BoE Chief Economist Huw Pill said on Monday that market pricing pointing towards an interest rate cut in August 2024 "doesn't seem totally unreasonable, at least to me". (Reporting by Padraic Halpin and Conor Humphries; writing by David Milliken; editing by William James)