Meetings
After a half-day "pre-MPC meeting", usually the Friday before, meetings are held over two days, typically on the Wednesday and Thursday following the first Monday of each month. This is sometimes deviated from, including in the event of general election; in 2010, for example, the meeting was postponed from the 5/6 to the 7/10 May in order to avoid conflicting with the election schedule for the 6th.
On the first day of each meeting, the Committee studies data relating to the UK economy, as well as the worldwide economy, presented by the Bank's economists and regional representatives, and topics for discussion are identified. On the second day, each member is asked their views about the direction of policy they would like to see. The Governor chooses the policy most likely to command a majority and a vote is then taken to confirm; each member gets one vote. The interest rate decisions are announced at noon of the second day of the meeting, following the conclusion of the meeting. Minutes of each meeting, which explain the reasons for the decision and list the votes of each member, are published on the Bank's website after a two-week delay. Those in the minority are asked to give the action they would have preferred.
Other than monthly meetings, members of the MPC can be called upon by Parliament to answer questions regarding their decisions, via parliamentary committee meetings, often those of the Treasury Committee. MPC members also speak to audiences throughout the country, with the same aim. Their views and expectations for inflation are also republished in the Bank's quarterly inflation report.
Read more about this topic: Monetary Policy Committee
Famous quotes containing the word meetings:
“I have been reporting club meetings for four years and I am tired of hearing reviews of the books I was brought up on. I am tired of amateur performances at occasions announced to be for purposes either of enjoyment or improvement. I am tired of suffering under the pretense of acquiring culture. I am tired of hearing the word “culture” used so wantonly. I am tired of essays that let no guilty author escape quotation.”
—Josephine Woodward, U.S. author. As quoted in Everyone Was Brave, ch. 3, by William L. O’Neill (1969)
“I love meetings with suits. I live for meetings with suits. I love them because I know they had a really boring week and I walk in there with my orange velvet leggings and drop popcorn in my cleavage and then fish it out and eat it. I like that. I know I’m entertaining them and I know that they know. Obviously, the best meetings are with suits that are intelligent, because then things are operating on a whole other level.”
—Madonna [Madonna Louise Ciccione] (b. 1959)