Bank of England policy maker Ben Broadbent said officials will only consider an interest-rate increase once the recovery is secure, with inflation unlikely to prompt monetary tightening earlier than they have signaled.

“We want to ensure that this recovery, which is only just beginning in a way, continues and is not choked off by a premature rise in interest rates,” Broadbent said in a television interview on Sky News Sunday.

BOE Gov. Mark Carney introduced forward guidance in August, saying policy makers will keep the key interest rate at a record low 0.5 percent at least until unemployment, now at 7.7 percent, drops to 7 percent. While officials forecast that won’t happen before 2016, investors are betting on a rate increase before then as one of the policy’s inflation-linked clauses is triggered or joblessness declines faster than the monetary authority predicts.

It’s “unlikely” that one of the inflation knockouts will be breached, Broadbent said. “It’s more likely that we would only consider raising interest rates once unemployment falls below 7 percent.”

The aim of guidance is to give more information on the conditions under which the BOE would think about raising interest rates, Broadbent said. “The purpose is to reassure people that we’re only going to do that when the recovery is on a secure footing.”

The U.K. economic recovery has gained momentum this year and the International Monetary Fund this month raised its growth forecast for the country.

Data this week will show U.K. economic expansion accelerated to 0.8 percent in the third quarter after 0.7 percent growth in the three months through June, according to the median forecast of 40 economists in a Bloomberg News survey. The number will be released by the Office for National Statistics on Oct. 25.

In an interview published in the Sunday Telegraph Sunday, former BOE Deputy Gov. Paul Tucker said the impact of the central bank’s stimulus had increased as concerns spurred by the euro-area sovereign debt crisis eased. (Bloomberg)