The Governor of the Bank of England stressed he remained politically neutral on Brexit before highlighting that less friction with nearby trade partners would inevitably help the economy.

He said: “For over a decade now I’ve been clear that, as a public official, I do not take a position on Brexit.

“Having said that, the broader question is: would the UK being able to trade more openly with its nearest neighbours, to have that trade, to have that market openness, be beneficial for growth in the UK? My view is yes, it would.”

It comes as Andy Burnham prepares for an upcoming summit with the European Union to seek stronger relations with them. Last month, he told MPs that not doing anything would be a “major dereliction of duty” and a conversation about the relationship was vital if Britain was “serious about promoting growth”.

However, Mr Bailey told the BBC that Brexit has not impacted the City in the way that some had predicted, adding: “Let’s go back 10 years from now to the post-referendum period.

“I mean, people were predicting sort of doom and gloom and the end of the City of London and that hasn’t actually happened. Financial services has remained one of the more open markets and I’m very pleased with that.

“We at the Bank of England have been very strongly supportive of that because we believe in open financial markets and we will go on believing in open financial markets and working closely with our partners in other parts of Europe.”

In a separate BBC interview, he acknowledged that inflation was above the Bank’s 2% target during his tenure, adding: “Sadly, I do agree on the factual point that we have had inflation above target. What I have to say is that we’ve had a number of very big global or geopolitical shocks going on.

“I always say to people [that] if you go back seven, eight years and then ask the question: what probability would you put on there being a war in the Middle East and in Europe at the same time? I think people [would] have said very, very low.”

He suggested that global factors proved Britain was not an outlier when it came to increasing inflation. “I don’t agree with this idea that we’ve got endemic inflation,” he said. “I think we have got problems we have to deal with. Those problems are, you know – in the context of the current one, it’s a very particular source.

“It’s very concentrated in energy prices and we have to deal with it. But it’s not endemic in that sense.”