WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Ben Broadbent, a deputy governor of Bank of England, on Wednesday apologized for saying that the UK's economy was going through a 'menopausal' phase. The comment was severely criticized.
'I'm sorry for my poor choice of language in an interview with the Telegraph yesterday and regret the offense caused,' Broadbent said in a statement.
Ben Broadbent used the phrase in a Daily Telegraph interview about economies that were 'past their peak, and no longer so potent'.
'I recognize that while these are economic terms that have been used in the past, my use of the word 'menopausal' conveyed ageist and sexist overtones and I should not have used it', he wrote on the Bank's internal website.
'I was attempting to explain the meaning of the world 'climacteric'. As the journalist who was interviewing me has subsequently tweeted, I made it clear in the interview that this is a term which applies to both genders.'
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