UK's Hammond says likely fiscal loosening will hinge on economy

LONDON, July 22 (Reuters) - British finance minister Philip Hammond said he planned to support the economy through a period of weakness after the vote to leave the European Union, but could not yet say what precise form or scale this would have.

"Exactly what that framework looks like will depend on the state of the economy at the time of the Autumn statement. The data that we see over the next three months or so will be crucially important in shaping our response," he told Sky News in an interview on a trip to China.

Hammond also played down closely-watched survey of business managers, who reported a sharp fall in activity in their firms earlier on Friday, pushing sterling down by more than a cent against the dollar.

"Let's be clear, the PMI data is a measure of sentiment, it's not a measure of any hard activity in the economy. What it tells us is businesses confidence has been dented, they're not sure, they're in a period of uncertainty now," he said. (Reporting Kate Holton, writing by David Milliken; Editing by Ana Nicolaci da Costa)