In his first major speech of the year, he issued a warning on the UK fiscal situation and said the Monetary Policy Committee had yet to decide on the future path of the central bank's asset purchase programme because its members were waiting for "conditions to become clearer".
Minutes from the latest BoE meeting shed little light on the policy outlook. Policymakers said February's inflation forecasts would give a better idea on the economy. All nine MPC members voted in January to keep interest rates at record low of 0.5 percent and to maintain its 200 billion pound quantitative easing scheme, as expected.
Sterling briefly pared losses against the dollar after UK jobs data showed a bigger improvement than expected. By 1543 GMT, the pound was at $1.6275, down 0.6 percent on the day, coming off a 6-week high hit on Tuesday. The pound held gains against the euro, rising 0.7 percent at 86.67 pence. Earlier in the session, it rose to 86.59 pence, its highest since August last year. Stop-loss sales were seen around 86.45 pence, traders said.