UK's Osborne backs Bank of England plan to cut number of meetings

LONDON, Dec 11 (Reuters) - British finance minister George Osborne said on Thursday he backed Bank of England proposals to cut the number of meetings of its Monetary Policy Committee (MPC (KOSDAQ: 050540.KQ - news) ) to eight a year from 12.

The change would require an amendment to existing legislation.

"Changes to the schedule of MPC meetings to move to 8 evenly spaced meetings a year and four joint FPC-MPC meetings are an important improvement to the policy-making process, and I will consider amending the Bank of England Act in the next parliament," Osborne said.

(Reporting by David Milliken, editing by John Stonestreet)