May says low rates and QE have bad side-effects, need change

BIRMINGHAM, England (Reuters) - Prime Minister Theresa May said on Wednesday that there had been bad side-effects from the Bank of England's emergency measures to protect the economy since the financial crisis and the time had come for a new approach to spurring growth. "While monetary policy with super-low interest rates and quantitative easing provided the necessary emergency medicine after the financial crash, we have to acknowledge that there have been some bad side-effects," May said in a speech to the annual conference of her ruling Conservative Party. "People with assets have got richer, people without them have suffered; people with mortgages have found their debts cheaper, people with savings have found themselves poorer," she said. "A change has got to come and we are going to deliver it." Bank of England Governor Mark Carney has previously said that the ability of central bankers to keep on helping their economies was limited and governments needed to take action to secure long-term growth. May also reiterated in her speech that her government would "continue to aim for a balanced budget." She has previously scrapped the target of former Chancellor George Osborne to turn the country's budget deficit into a surplus by 2020 but has said she still wants to get the public finances into the black. (Reporting by Kylie MacLellan, Elizabeth Piper and Stephen Addison; writing by William Schomberg, editing by David Milliken)