Bank of England's Forbes sees little contagion risk from Greece

[LONDON] Bank of England policymaker Kristin Forbes said on Monday that the most typical channels of contagion from the Greek debt crisis, such as banks' exposure to the country, are manageable.

Ms Forbes, speaking at a conference organized by Fortune magazine in London, said the financial system was better prepared to deal with a shock from Greece than the Asian financial crisis of 1997.

But she added that the BoE was monitoring the Greek crisis as "you never know" what might happen.

Ms Forbes also said getting interest rates back to more normal levels from their record lows represents an opportunity for savers and to reallocate capital and blaming the financial crisis for weak productivity growth was an argument that was starting to fade.

However, technological advances mean many people are too pessimistic that productivity growth will be poor for a long time, she added.

REUTERS