Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T04:40:20.890Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee: A View from a Parlimentary Specialist Advisor

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 March 2020

Mike Wickens*
Affiliation:
University of YorkUK

Abstract

This article assesses the new monetary policy regime introduced in the UK in 1997. It discusses the original remit given to the Bank of England, how it has been interpreted by the Bank and the conduct of monetary policy by the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) subsequently. The article draws heavily on my experience as Specialist Adviser to the House of Lords Select Committee on Economic Affairs over this whole period. I conclude that the MPC has been very successful in fulfilling its remit, but that a puzzle remains at the heart of the policy over whether the way inflation targeting has worked in practice is consistent with how it is said to work in theory.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © 2006 National Institute of Economic and Social Research

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

I should like to thank Charles Goodhart for his comments on an earlier draft. The views expressed in this article are my own, and should not be attributed to the House of Lords Select Committee on Economic Affairs.

References

Balls, E. and O'Donnell, G. (2002), Reforming Britain's Economic and Financial Policy, Palgrave.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Campa, J.M., Goldberg, L.S. and Gonzalez-Minguez, J.M. (2005), ‘Exchange rate pass-through to import prices in the euro area’, Federal Reserve Bank of New York Staff Report no. 219.Google Scholar
Engel, C. (1999), ‘Accounting for US real exchange rate changes’, Journal of Political Economy, 107, pp. 507–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goodhart, C.A.E. (2006), ‘An essay on the interactions between the Bank of England's forecasts, the MPC's policy adjustments, and the eventual outcome’, Journal of Central Banking Studies (forthcoming).Google Scholar
H.M. Treasury (1997), The Inflation Target and Remit for the Monetary Policy Committee: Background Notes, H.M. Treasury.Google Scholar
H.M. Treasury (1999), The New Monetary Policy Framework, H.M. Treasury.Google Scholar
House of Lords Select Committee on the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England (1999), The Stationery Office.Google Scholar
House of Lords Select Committee on the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England (2001), The Stationery Office.Google Scholar
House of Lords Select Committee on Economic Affairs (2001), The Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England, The Stationary Office.Google Scholar
House of Lords Select Committee on Economic Affairs (2003), The MPC and Recent Developments in Monetary Policy, The Stationary Office.Google Scholar
House of Lords Select Committee on Economic Affairs (2004), Monetary and Fiscal Policy: Present Successes and Future Problems, The Stationary Office.Google Scholar
Nickell, S. (2005), ‘Practical issues in UK monetary policy, 2000–2005’, British Academy Lecture.Google Scholar
The Bank of England Quarterly Model (2005), Bank of England.Google Scholar