By Mervyn King
Mervyn King, Deputy Governor of the Bank, discusses the potential value of house prices as an indicator of economic prospects, but also the difficulties in measuring house prices accurately. He then describes how the members of the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee base their decisions on economic data from month to month, with the common aim of meeting the Government’s inflation target; he notes that attempts to classify members as ‘hawks’ or ‘doves’ are misguided.
The UK economy and monetary policy—looking ahead