Bank of England Business Panel - Boston - Lincolnshire Chamber of Commerce and Industry, UK

On the 28th of June, Alastair Cunningham, the Bank of England’s Agent for the East Midlands, met with around 10 Chamber Members at Magnadata, Boston, for a round-table discussion on economic conditions. Alastair started by outlining the intelligence that he and the Bank’s other Regional Agents had gathered from their interaction with business across the country – the latest summary is available by clicking here. The main focus was on members’ recent experiences. Discussion covered:

• Whether the momentum of activity had changed during 2011 (mixed views on whether activity had slowed during the second quarter, against a backdrop of little change relative to the previous year)
• Petrol prices (a key issue for contacts in rural locations – impacting on retail footfall and leading to some difficulties in filling lower paid positions)
• Pricing (still seeing deflation in fees for professional services)

These panels are invaluable for the Bank of England as a source of intelligence on how businesses are faring in the county. And that intelligence is fed back directly to the monetary policymakers in London as part of their monthly briefing on the state of the economy.

For more information on these panels, please This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it to email Charlotte Robson, or here to visit our Events webpage.