by business editor Trevor Sturgess

Seeds of economic recovery could be sprouting in the New Year, deputy governor of the Bank of England Charlie Bean has said in Kent.

Mr Bean, a member of the Bank’s influential interest rate-setting Monetary Policy Committee, told Kent Online News during a fact-finding visit to the county, that the economy was "bumping along the bottom." But there were signs of modest improvement from recent business surveys.

"Clearly what we are hoping to see is some signs of genuine recovery as we go into the back half of next year," he said. "I think it’s reasonable to expect not a sharp recovery but a much more moderate pickup in growth as we go forward but hopefully by the time we get into next year, the seeds will more obviously be sprouting and we can say that recovery is definitely here.

"I think we’ve reached bottom and we should be starting to recover as we go forward. The recovery will come eventually and obviously what we’re trying to do at the Bank with our policy actions is to hasten that date, bring that recovery forward and make sure it’s well founded."