WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The Bank of England is midway through its work in responding to a major review of its forecasting and communication processes, Deputy Governor Clare Lombardelli said on Thursday.
The review, published a year ago and authored by former U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke, recommended sweeping changes to the BoE’s communications and analytical capabilities.
“We are midway through this process,” Lombardelli told a panel in Washington hosted by the Peterson Institute for International Economics, a U.S. think tank, on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund’s spring meetings.
The BoE has already started to introduce economic scenarios as a way of showing how policy would operate an increasingly uncertain world.
Lombardelli said the BoE was keen not to cloud the picture by “creating lightning rods of focus for particular examples”, and avoid the risk that offering scenarios might in itself add to uncertainty.
How best to communicate uncertainty was now at the forefront of the BoE’s thinking, she said, adding that other disciplines such as healthcare during the COVID-19 pandemic offered lessons for the central bank.
(Reporting by William Schomberg in Washington, Writing by Andy Bruce)
