The Bank's Monetary Policy Statements are formally reviewed by a Select Committee of the Parliament, during which the Governor, and his senior team, may be questioned by the committee in public hearings. I raised earlier the issue of where the efficient limits to transparency might lie. This is something that we have given thought to recently, although without yet coming to firm conclusions. The question arises for us in the context of a long established policy of publishing detailed forecasts, both of the main macroeconomic data series, and of the track of monetary conditions that may be needed to ensure that inflation outcomes over the next two to three years are consistent with our 0 to 3 percent inflation target. At issue is how best to convey a sense of the likely evolution of policy in an uncertain world.
Transparency is fine where there is real information content to be revealed.
It may be less helpful, even harmful, where the information revealed is subject to significant change in the short term. In general, we have been tending to reduce the detail of our published forecasts in favour of a greater focus on identifying more aggregated and medium term trends in our projections. Sir Edward discussed the role of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee in terms of both transparency and accountability. As chair of our own MPC, I found this to be particularly interesting. In our case, the MPC is purely an advisory body.