BoE's Swati Dhingra: Evidence-based policymaking must become a 'priority'

Speech at ECONDAT conference

Monetary Policy Committee member Swati Dhingra has argued the Bank of England must make evidence-based policymaking a “priority”, especially in the aftermath of the Bernanke review.

In a speech at the ECONDAT conference on 10 May, published by the BoE on Thursday (23 May), she said the inflationary episode of the last few years has prompted a "reappraisal of the evidence that is needed" to support policymaking during large economic shocks. However, in order to do so, the central bank needs to start from the "evidence itself", as forecasting models are only "as good as the data that is fed into them", Dhingra argued. Ben Bernanke calls on Bank of England to consider publishing interest rate projections For instance, the MPC member outlined that, had the BoE had...