Roundup: Britain should hold EU referendum "as soon as necessary": BoE's governor

Mark Carney, governor of the Bank of England, Thursday said it would be better to launch the in-out EU referendum "as soon as necessary", in order to shorten the period of uncertainty that weigh on Britain's economy.

Speaking in an interview with the BBC, the central bank's governor said: "We talk to a lot of bosses and there has been uncertainty whether it's for the election or the referendum."

David Cameron, British Prime Minister, confirmed his promise to have a referendum on British continued European Union membership shortly after the Conservative Party won the General Election last week.

In regard to the expected timetable, Carney said: "I wouldn't put a specific timetable on it, the government has made it clear that it's a priority, I'm sure the government will act with appropriate speed in developing the negotiations and putting forward an appropriate question."

Patrick Dunleavy, Professor of the London School of Economics (LSE), told Xinhua last week that he expects the in-out referendum to be moved forward to next year, rather than by the end of 2017. The event might withhold international investors' new project plans in Britain.

Carney also dismissed fears that cheap foreign labor has hurt the productivity of the country. Rather, he argued that the rising numbers of British nationals willing to work have had a greater impact on the labor force than migrant labor.

The central bank on Wednesday cut its forecast on Britain's economic growth for 2015 from 2.9 percent to 2.5 percent, and for 2016 from 2.9 percent to 2.6 percent in its latest quarterly forecast report. The weaker productivity growth is the main reason for BoE's forecast update.

Carney said older people willing to work and workers seeking more hours had added 500,000 to the labor force over the past two years, which was around 10 times more than the immigration.

Carney stressed that an increase in productivity "matters enormously" to British economy and is "key determinant" for increasing wages and living standards in the country.

Productivity is an average measure of the efficiency of production which can be expressed as the ratio of output to inputs used in the production process, i.e. output per unit of input.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) also cites productivity as the main determinant of national living standards. And according to ONS's research report released earlier this year, the output per hour in British was 17 percent points below the average for the rest of the major G7 advanced economies in 2013, recording the widest productivity gap since 1992.

Experts here believe that if a country can't deliver the goods - or, rather, keep delivering ever more of them, then ultimately its economy is doomed to fail; and this country isn't delivering more. Endit