-New BoE chief economist says odds favour hawks on rate hike

(Removes superfluous word in headline)

* Haldane indicates would err on side of acting earlier

* MPC (KOSDAQ: 050540.KQ - news) views on rate hike timing could differ in time-Haldane

* MPC thinks rate hike need not be immediate-Haldane

By Ana Nicolaci da Costa (NasdaqGS: ATX - news)

LONDON, June 18 (Reuters) - New Bank of England chief economist Andy Haldane said on Wednesday that he favoured raising interest rates earlier rather than later, adding to a recent string of more hawkish comments from the central bank.

Haldane, a career BoE (Shenzhen: 000725.SZ - news) official who started his new job this month, said differences were likely to emerge on the nine-member Monetary Policy Committee over when to start increasing rates from their record-low 0.5 percent.

Using a lengthy cricketing analogy, Haldane said the timing of a first rate rise was "a close run thing with the odds slightly favouring the front foot" - a batting stance which he said equated to a more hawkish position on rates.

But he said that different economic data could easily change his view and potentially that of others.

"It is not difficult to see why this choice over timing is a difficult one. The policymaker in this situation faces the self-same dilemma as the batsmen facing a ball pitching in the corridor of uncertainty," he added.

Minutes from the BoE's latest rates meeting showed the monetary policy committee thought markets had underestimated the risk of a 2014 rate hike, in line with the Bank's recent messages.

But it also showed members had unanimously voted for interest rates to remain unchanged in June and agreed more economic slack needed to be taken up before they could rise.

Some in the market had expected the minutes to show that such divisions had already been present at the June meeting.

Haldane reiterated the BoE's message that any rise in interest rates would be gradual and would take them to below their historical averages, adding that financial markets appeared to have largely understood that message.

BoE Governor Mark Carney said last week that monetary tightening may come sooner than expected by financial markets. That led markets to bring forward their rate hike bets to 2014 from early 2015. (Additional reporting by David Milliken; Editing by Larry King)