Bank of England Inflation Report: IoD reaction

Dated: 16 February 2011

Commenting on the latest Inflation Report from the Bank of England, Graeme Leach, Chief Economist at the IoD said:

“We’re in for a bumpy ride and have argued for some time that the Bank’s 2011 GDP forecast needed to be downgraded. The IoD is forecasting sub 1.5 per cent GDP growth this year in the wake of the squeeze on real incomes, labour market weakness, high indebtedness and near zero money supply growth.

“Where we differ with the Bank is our emphasis on the significance of the latest broad money supply figures which probably make a stronger case for QE now than when it was introduced. Until broad money supply growth begins to accelerate we are not at all confident as to the strength and durability of the recovery”.

ENDS

Contact Points

Edwin Morgan
Media Relations Manager
Institute of Directors, 116 Pall Mall, London SW1Y 5ED
Tel: +44 (0)20 7451 3392
Mob: +44 (0)7814 386 243
Email: edwin.morgan@iod.com
Website: www.iod.com/policy

Notes to editors

  • The IoD (Institute of Directors) was founded in 1903 and obtained a Royal Charter in 1906. The IoD is a non-party political organisation with upwards of 45,000 members in the United Kingdom and overseas. Membership includes directors from right across the business spectrum – from media to manufacturing, e-business to the public and voluntary sectors. Members include CEOs of large corporations as well as entrepreneurial directors of start-up companies.
  • The IoD offers a wide range of business services which include business centre facilities (including ten UK regional centres [three in London, Reading, Birmingham, Cardiff, Manchester, Nottingham, Edinburgh and Belfast] and one each in Paris and Brussels), conferences, networking events, virtual offices and hotdesking, issues-led guides and literature, as well as free access to business information and advisory services and a comprehensive Information Centre. The IoD places great emphasis on director development and has established a certified qualification for directors – Chartered Director – as well as running specific board-level and director-level training and individual career mentoring programmes.
  • In addition, the IoD provides an effective voice to represent the interests of its members to government and key opinion-formers at the highest levels. These include ministers, constituency MPs, Select Committee members and senior civil servants. IoD policies and views are actively promoted to the national, regional and trade media.
  • For further information, visit our website: www.iod.com
  • You can also keep up to date with the latest views from the IoD on twitter.com/The_IoD and at blogs.iod.com