Bank of England's Weale: rates could stay low for some time - paper

LONDON (Reuters) - Bank of England policymaker Martin Weale said interest rates could remain at their historic low for some time, despite a steeper-than-expected fall in unemployment, a newspaper reported on Friday.

The East Anglian Daily Times also quoted Weale as saying he was against a lowering of the BoE's threshold for considering an interest rate hike, which is based on unemployment falling to 7 percent.

Unemployment has tumbled to 7.1 percent and Weale told the newspaper that setting a new, lower threshold would not help create certainty about the BoE's next steps because it could be quickly be overtaken by events.

(Reporting by Andy Bruce; Writing by William Schomberg; Editing by Kim Coghill)