Bank of England officials are no inflation 'nutters', Pill says

LONDON (Reuters) - Bank of England Chief Economist Huw Pill said on Tuesday that he and his colleagues at the British central bank were not "inflation nutters" but controlling the surge in prices was needed to stop its impact from spreading in the economy.

"We're not meant to be inflation nutters," Pill said at a conference organised by bank UBS. "We are meant to sort of manage this trade-off in a way that avoids unnecessary, counterproductive maybe, disruptions to the real economy."

Pill said he was sceptical that front-loading interest rate increases could bring about an "immaculate disinflation" with no real-world consequences, addressing criticism that the BoE had been too slow to raise borrowing costs.

(Reporting by David Milliken; Writing by William Schomberg)