Bank of England policymaker Paul Fisher expects a "very strong" gross domestic product number in the third quarter, he was reported as saying in an interview with the Sun newspaper on Thursday.

The Sun also reported, without providing a full direct quote, that Fisher expected British inflation to stay around its current 2.5 percent rate for about "two to three years".

A BoE spokesman later sought to clarify Fisher's comment on the basis of a recording of the interview, noting that Fisher said: "We are very seldom going to be actually at 2 percent, we'll always be a bit away and trying to bring it back. So our forecast has inflation within this sort of range - either a bit above or a bit below - for the next two or three years".

The Bank's August forecasts show inflation averaging around 2.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012, before falling below its 2 percent target in the fourth quarter of 2013.

Fisher added that the recently started Funding for Lending Scheme was uncapped and likely to pump 60-100 billion pounds into the British economy.

"The banks now really have an incentive to go out there and lend. We think there are credit-hungry businesses out there. It's difficult to see there are any excuses left," he said.

(Reporting by Olesya Dmitracova and David Milliken)