LONDON -(Dow Jones)- Bank of England Chief Economist Spencer Dale says the U.K. economy has stabilized, but it'll be a "long haul" to full recovery.
In an interview with regional newspaper the Express and Echo, Dale said companies seemed to be cautiously realistic about their prospects, but he noted many were still facing difficulties accessing funding.
He also said employment could remain low or fall further and that the future pickup in the level of jobs would likely be relatively "slow and gradual."
"Things look like they've stabilized, and we have turned a corner, but it looks like we are in for a long haul," Dale said.
"There's still a long way to go before things are bouncing back to where they were, and it's going to take us a while to get there, but things feel quite a bit better than they did six or nine months ago," he said.
Dale noted that measures of business confidence had stopped falling.
"Many businesses, even if they haven't seen the recovery have seen the bottom, but there's still a sense of quite realistic caution," he said.
"The sense of fear that was in many businesses in the first half of this year has subsided. The risk that things could get really bad has gone away, but now it's a question of how quickly we may see a return to normality," Dale said.
One factor slowing a return to business as usual, is the continuing lack of credit availability, although there have been some signs of improvement, he said.
"We still hear stories that people are finding it hard to access funds in the way that they used to and to undertake new investment projects and expansion. I think that remains a significant issue affecting local businesses," he said.
On jobs, Dale said that because the decline in employment hasn't been so large, companies will need to use up existing slack before they take on any additional workers.
"Going forward we may well see employment levels continue to remain low, or fall further, before we start to see a pick up, so I do think the pick up in employment may well be relatively slow and gradual," he said.
In an interview with regional newspaper the Express and Echo, Dale said companies seemed to be cautiously realistic about their prospects, but he noted many were still facing difficulties accessing funding.
He also said employment could remain low or fall further and that the future pickup in the level of jobs would likely be relatively "slow and gradual."
"Things look like they've stabilized, and we have turned a corner, but it looks like we are in for a long haul," Dale said.
"There's still a long way to go before things are bouncing back to where they were, and it's going to take us a while to get there, but things feel quite a bit better than they did six or nine months ago," he said.
Dale noted that measures of business confidence had stopped falling.
"Many businesses, even if they haven't seen the recovery have seen the bottom, but there's still a sense of quite realistic caution," he said.
"The sense of fear that was in many businesses in the first half of this year has subsided. The risk that things could get really bad has gone away, but now it's a question of how quickly we may see a return to normality," Dale said.
One factor slowing a return to business as usual, is the continuing lack of credit availability, although there have been some signs of improvement, he said.
"We still hear stories that people are finding it hard to access funds in the way that they used to and to undertake new investment projects and expansion. I think that remains a significant issue affecting local businesses," he said.
On jobs, Dale said that because the decline in employment hasn't been so large, companies will need to use up existing slack before they take on any additional workers.
"Going forward we may well see employment levels continue to remain low, or fall further, before we start to see a pick up, so I do think the pick up in employment may well be relatively slow and gradual," he said.
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