New transparency procedures to be tested by MPC ahead of August inception
The Bank of England will be testing their new procedure for MPC monetary policy meetings due to come into effect from August. In an effort to be more transparent with decisions the minutes and voting patterns will be released at the same time as the decision
The current process involves the MPC members being briefed on the latest economic data in their two day meeting starting on a Wednesday, the result of which is announced the next day. The new schedule will see the MPC briefed nearly a week earlier and the formal meeting will now be on a Monday, with the announcement still coming on a Thursday
The new method will be tested from tomorrow and the new format will be run on every meeting until August, when the new announcements go live. The minutes will still come two weeks after the meeting until then
The quarterly inflation reports will also be published on an MPC announcement day which means Carney & Co won't be so restricted by the fact that the minutes of the prior meeting won't have been published, thus making it difficult to talk about any views within the MPC
While some people have praised the move to bring more transparency to meetings, others have said that there's an increased risk of leaks as the decision is effectively known nearly a week before the actual announcement when the minutes will be drafted
To be honest the tradition of the minutes coming two weeks after the announcement has run its course and we should get all the facts at once. I'm not so sure about having the inflation report at the same time though as that might be information overload but it depends on how they work it
The FT have more on the story here
All change for the Bank of England monetary policy meetings
