LONDON, Oct 17 (Reuters) - Financial markets may have been right to bet that the Bank of England will make its first increase in interest rates in the middle of 2015, the Bank's chief economist said on Friday.
"Who knows precisely when the lift-off date will come," Andrew Haldane told ITV television in an interview.
"If you believe the financial markets, they're now betting somewhere in the middle of next year. Perhaps that's not a bad bet," he said.
"But if the last three months tell us anything, it's that the data can change a lot and when the data changes financial markets and we on the MPC (policy committee), we change our minds too."
Haldane said in a speech earlier on Friday that he was more in favour of keeping interest rates low for longer than he had been as recently as June, given the uncertainties hanging over the British and global economies.
In his interview with ITV, he said there was no sign of an imminent pickup in inflation.
"There isn't much evidence just right now of pipeline inflationary pressures. If there were, we might be having a different conversation," he told the broadcaster.
Haldane said the situation in the euro zone, which risks falling back into recession, was a concern and meant Britain's economic recovery was "by no means fully entrenched" and the BoE should not risk stalling it by raising rates now.
He also told ITV that the BoE should be as vigilant about inflation coming in too far below its 2 percent target as it was about price growth overshooting the target by too much.
British inflation in September slowed to a five-year low of 1.2 percent.
(Reporting by William Schomberg, editing by John Stonestreet)