| Code | DS/UK/75 |
| Corporate Name | Bank of England Economic Intelligence Department |
| Dates | 1964 - 1980 |
| OtherFormsOfName | Economic Section (1921 - 1927); Statistical Section (1927 - 1934); Economics and Statistics Section (1934 - 1942); Statistics Office (1942 - 1959); Central Banking Information Department (1959 - 1964); CBID; EID; Economics Division (1980 - 1994); Financial Statistics Division; Monetary Analysis Division; Monetary and Financial Statistics Division |
| Activity | The Economic Intelligence Department was responsible for providing advice on domestic and external financial matters and questions of general economic management; for investigating the consequences of the Bank's actions on monetary and financial conditions; for providing a statistical service to the rest of the Bank and to the public and for informing the general public, through the Quarterly Bulletin, about the Bank's policies and the circumstances surrounding them.
The first formal unit dealing with economics or statistics appears to date from 1921 when there was a small Economic Section in the Chief Cashier's Office. Its function was to produce figures on the real economy, the balance of payments, the markets and so on for senior Bank officials. In 1927, by then renamed the Statistical Section, it started producing the Statistical Summary (EID2). As Economics and Statistics Section, it moved to the Secretary's Department in 1934, largely because its Principal was appointed Secretary of the Bank.
In 1942 a new Statistics Office was formed in the Secretary's Department, which combined this section with the Foreign Exchange Statistics Office - part of Exchange Control - and the Exchange Economy Section, which was situated in the Overseas and Foreign Office and dealt with balance of payments estimates.
As a result of the Radcliffe Committee, a new Central Banking Information Department was set up in 1959 combining the Statistics Office and the Overseas Department. In practice, the department proved too large to be conveniently controlled and in 1964 it was split into the Overseas Department and the Economic Intelligence Department.
The Department remained largely unchanged until 1980, when it was amalgamated into the new Policy and Markets area as three divisions: Financial Statistics Division (FSD), Industrial Finance Division and Economics Division. This structure remained intact until the reorganisation of 1994, when the Bank was split into Monetary Stability (including Monetary & Financial Statistics, Monetary Analysis, Market Operations and Banking & Market Services) and Financial Stability. |
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