By Tim Taylor and Iain de Weymarn of the Bank's Monetary Assessment and Strategy Division and Bronwyn Curtis, Chairman of the Society of Business Economists.
This article reports the results of the Society of Business Economists' (SBE) survey of its members' views on MPC communications. The survey found that, when forming a view about interest rate prospects, SBE members looked first at the macroeconomic data. Communications by the MPC were the next most important input. Overall, a large majority of respondents (87%) found MPC communications either 'helpful' or 'very helpful'. But there was some room for improvement. For example, the results suggested that the MPC could have done a better job of explaining how it responded to developments in the data. The enhanced coverage of risks and identification of key forthcoming data releases in recent Inflation Reports should help to address this issue. But the MPC's communication strategy continues to evolve, and the survey results will be a useful input to that process.
The Society of Business Economists' survey on MPC communications
Survey data