BoE's Taylor says 'perilous' trade situation justified half-point rate cut vote

LONDON, May 12 (Reuters) - Bank of England policymaker Alan Taylor said on Monday that he voted for a half-point rate cut last week - in defiance of the majority on the Monetary Policy Committee - because of a "quite perilous" trade situation as well as a weakening domestic economy.

"The erosion of confidence that we saw has continued. We're getting very low readings on PMI and REC and so forth. So there's that continuation, the sort of wait and see in the ... precautionary saving, postponement of investment in terms of households and businesses," he said at a conference hosted by King's College London.

Taylor's assessment of the economy was more downbeat than that of his MPC colleagues Clare Lombardelli and Megan Greene who spoke earlier at the conference and viewed the impact of Trump's tariffs on Britain as fairly modest.