Bank of England finds encouraging signs
A member of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) says he has been encouraged by the response of local businesses after a fact finding mission in the West Midlands. Adam Posen, a member of the committee that sets interest rates, was in the area this week to meet with business representative groups and individual companies in an attempt to gain a deeper appreciation of how the current economic and business conditions are affecting the region.
A total of 40 different groups and companies were consulted including the Birmingham Chamber Group.
He said:“We also met up with Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce which had a large number of engineering and automotive related manufacturing businesses and that was quite interesting and very encouraging. They really seem to have responded in export terms to a previous decline in the pound.”
Posen said that at the meeting with the Birmingham Chamber Group, people were very engaged and calm.
“The assessment I’m getting from the businesses I speak to is largely in line with my personal take and the overall MPC take which is that we are having a recovery but it’s not a huge bustling, booming recovery and it’s, as they say on the morning weather reports, patchy,” he said.
