Bank of England's Miles says speedy rate rise would be "catastrophic"

LONDON (Reuters) - Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee member David Miles said on Monday that a rapid rise in interest rates before unemployment had fallen meaningfully would damage Britain's economy.

"What we're going to do is not to increase interest rates ... as soon as we get a little bit of good news on the economy, such as we've had over the last six months, because I think that would be a pretty catastrophic strategy," Miles said in a BBC radio interview.

Miles also said the storm which caused widespread disruption and claimed two lives in southern England earlier on Monday would have some impact on fourth-quarter economic output, but would probably be no more than "a tiny blip".

(Reporting by David Milliken and Shadi Bushra)