Press Release: Bank of England's decision to hold policy was the right choice

Commenting on the Bank of England's decision to hold policy, the Adam Smith Institute's Head of Policy Ben Southwood said:

"The MPC has made the right choice.

"The path of aggregate demand—as measured by nominal GDP growth—is just about where we'd want it, given the Bank's apparent decision to start a new trend rather than catching up with the one we saw prior to the recession.

"In general, and historically, we'd want to catch up to pre-recession trends, but by now most of the costs of failing to do so have probably been borne.

"It would certainly be inappropriate to tighten policy now—the recovery is only just setting in and there is considerable slack in the labour market, with nominal wages growing just 1.4% annually according to the latest data."

For further comment or to arrange an interview, contact Kate Andrews, Communications Manager, at kate@adamsmith.org / 07584 778 207.

The Adam Smith Institute is an independent libertarian think tank based in London. It advocates liberal public policies to create a richer, freer world.