LONDON: Sharp economic growth in Britain this year should not be confused with a boom, given the amount of ground lost last year during the coronavirus pandemic, Bank of England policymaker Gertjan Vlieghe said on Monday.

Vlieghe reiterated BoE forecasts that inflation was likely to exceed its 2% target later this year, due to temporary bottlenecks and base effects, but stressed the BoE would look to the medium term when setting interest rates.

"The fact that we're going to have, or we're likely to have, temporarily high growth rates and temporarily high inflation in the coming months, is not the main concern of monetary policy," Vlieghe said at an event hosted by King's College London's Qatar Centre for Global Banking and Finance.