LONDON, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Britain’s coronavirus epidemic is likely to have limited long-run implications for inflation, and has led to less short-term downward pressure on inflation than expected, Bank of England Deputy Governor Ben Broadbent said on Tuesday. Broadbent said the smaller slowdown in inflation reflected shifts in consumer demand during the pandemic that had led to temporary capacity constraints in businesses. “The consequences for cost pressures over the medium term – and therefore for monetary policy – are probably limited. But this divergence in demand may help to explain why, at least on impact, the pandemic has depressed inflation by a bit less than we and others anticipated when it began,” he said in a speech. (Reporting by David Milliken and Andy Bruce)