[BoE Deputy Governor Lombardelli said further interest rate increases may be needed] On November 10th, Bank of England Deputy Governor Clare Lombardelli said that the UK's "low hiring, low firing" labor market may make it more difficult to ease wage pressures, and warned that interest rates may need to be raised again. "Absent evidence that inflationary pressures are subsiding, I still think further rate hikes may be warranted in the near term," she said in a speech at the Bank of England observers conference in London on Tuesday. In the question-and-answer session that followed, Lombardelli said each interest rate decision meeting was "real time" and refused to rule out the possibility of consecutive rate hikes. The Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee last week raised interest rates for the first time in more than three years. "I would not rule out action in December or February," she said.