cricket for the first time. young people need role models and sport is perhaps the most important source of them. of the many black country sports men and women who have been role models down the years, there is one whom i would like to single out tonight – vikram solanki. born in rajasthan, vikram moved to wolverhampton as a small boy, and became the finest and most exciting batsman to emerge from the area for a long while. now captain of worcestershire, one could not think of a better role model to bring communities closer together. that is why i am pleased to say that i shall be one of vikram ’ s patrons for his benefit year in 2007. of course, i could not talk about sport in the black country without referring to football. nowhere had, in my day, more first division teams within a few miles radius than the black country. and all the supporters of those teams have had many opportunities over the years to learn how to win and, especially, how to lose. but for the sake of local interest and rivalry, i am looking forward to the day when wolves and the albion are restored to the premiership. just as football needs a referee, so does the economy. i think of the bank of england ’ s monetary policy committee – the mpc – as the referee for the economy. the mpc sets interest rates to keep inflation on track to meet the 2 % target. we want to allow you to focus on running your businesses – you are the players – while the mpc quietly gets on with its job. you may have seen in the news that yesterday the bank of england published its latest inflation report. that set out our view on the prospects for the economy over the next couple of years. perhaps i could briefly summarise our latest analysis of the uk economy. for the past year gdp has grown at a rate around its long - term average. inflation has picked up and has been above the 2 % target since may. overall, the central view is one of inflation rising further above the target in the near term, before falling back to the target. the risks around that benign central view are seen by the mpc as broadly balanced, but there is significant uncertainty about the outlook for inflation. the outlook for growth remains one of a continued modest rebalancing of demand, with consumer spending growing at close to its long - run average rate, business investment continuing to recover, and net trade making a small positive contribution to growth. the mpc judges that

andrew sentance : prospects for global economic recovery speech by mr andrew sentance, member of the monetary policy committee of the bank of england, at the british chambers of commerce annual convention, london, 18 march 2010. * * * i would like to thank michael hume and abi hughes for research assistance and i am also grateful for helpful comments from other colleagues. the views expressed are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of the bank of england or other members of the monetary policy committee. over the three - and - a - half years i have spent so far on the monetary policy committee, one of the things that has struck me most forcefully is the way in which the uk economy is so heavily influenced by international developments. the global financial crisis and the recession which resulted from it have highlighted that very clearly. but even before we felt the full force of the crisis in late 2008 and early 2009, uk inflation was pushed up to over 5 % by a surge in global energy and commodity prices. and looking back over the whole history of the mpc since 1997, most of the shocks to uk growth and inflation that the committee has had to worry about have had a significant international or global dimension. 1 these global influences on the uk economy partly reflect our economic history. flows of overseas trade, investment and finance have played a major part in shaping the development of the british economy, creating a highly international business and financial environment here in the uk. but links to the global economy have also been strengthened by globalisation, which has reinforced international linkages across the world economy as the global economic system has become more integrated and interdependent. 2 key global economic disturbances over this period include the asian crisis ( 1997 / 8 ), the bursting of the “ dotcom ” bubble followed by the impact of 9 / 11 and war in afghanistan and iraq ( 2001 – 3 ), and oil and commodity price volatility in the mid - 2000s. i have discussed the impact of globalisation in more detail in earlier speeches. see, for example, “ monetary policy in turbulent times ” ( 21 april 2009 ) and “ energy and environmental challenges in the new global economy ” ( 21 september 2009 ), both available on the bank of england website : http : / / www. bankofengland. co. uk / publications / speeches / speaker. htm # sentance. the performance of the global economy is therefore critical to the prospects for uk recovery. and it is therefore very encouraging that the global economy