By Jason Douglas 

The Bank of England remains on course to begin slowly raising interest rates early next year despite recent turmoil in global financial markets, Gov. Mark Carney said on Saturday.

In a speech at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City's annual economic symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyo., Mr. Carney said the likely timing of Britain's first rate increase in almost 10 years should become clearer around the turn of the year.

"Recent events do not yet, to my mind, merit changing the MPC's strategy for returning inflation to target," Mr. Carney said, referring to the BOE's rate-setting Monetary Policy Committee.

The panel's most recent forecasts suggested that officials will begin gently raising borrowing costs in the U.K. in the first half of 2016.

The governor's message comes after a week of market turbulence caused by jitters over the health of the Chinese economy.

The risk of a slowdown in the world's second-largest economy and its knock-on effects around the globe prompted investors to question whether the BOE and the U.S. Federal Reserve were likely to rethink when to begin lifting short-term interest rates in the U.K. and U.S. from their historic lows.

Mr. Carney said Saturday the U.K. economy remains in good shape and is unlikely to be too severely hit if China stumbles, according to a text of his remarks published by the central bank. The direct exposure of the U.K. economy to China through trade and finance is limited, he said.

The BOE governor said it is possible that a slowdown in China and other economies could bear down on inflation in the U.K., weakening the case for a rate rise. But he added this had to be set against a robust domestic expansion and mounting inflationary pressures at home.

Federal Reserve officials have also been grappling with what the events of the past week mean for monetary policy in the U.S.

Write to Jason Douglas at jason.douglas@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 29, 2015 13:41 ET (17:41 GMT)