the rt hon sir edward george : the state of the uk economy - some impressions speech by the rt hon sir edward george, governor of the bank of england, at the northwest development agency / bank of england dinner, manchester, 15 october 2002. * * * the bank has excellent contacts here in the north west - as indeed we have throughout the united kingdom. we ’ ve been represented here - both in manchester and liverpool - for over 175 years ; and i have no doubt that our present resident agent, tony strachan - and his deputies, graeme chaplin and neil ashbridge - are well known to many of you. they report regularly each month to the monetary policy committee on the business climate - frequently attending our monthly briefing meetings to tell us face to face what it is you ’ re getting up to. you just can ’ t imagine the tales that they tell! it ’ s not that we don ’ t believe them - but we still feel the need to come and see for ourselves! the members of the mpc and other senior officials of the bank are regular visitors up here. but this is the first occasion on which we have invaded you in such large numbers - with 10 of our non - executive directors and all 9 members of the mpc plus over a dozen other officials - for a meeting of our court - or board - of directors. we ’ re here to learn more at first hand from you what things are really like on the ground, and to give you our impressions of the state of the uk economy as a whole. i don ’ t suppose it will come as a great surprise if i tell you that we bring a somewhat mixed message on the overall economy. and it won ’ t surprise us, either, if you give us the same mixed message about the regional economy. and the reason - at both national and regional level - is clear. our overall economic performance has not been at all bad over the past decade. but for the past few years, beneath that relatively calm surface there has been a sustained imbalance, between businesses and sectors that are heavily exposed to some very cold winds blowing in from abroad, on the one hand, and the more domestically - oriented businesses and sectors, which have on the whole been doing much better, on the other. to remind you of some facts. inflation - on our rpix target measure - has averaged 2. 6 % over the past 10 years, and has for the past 2 years been mostly modestly below our 2½

, dr. jha served as india ’ s ambassador to the united states and as governor of jammu and kashmir. he was also a member of the widely acclaimed brandt commission which made a persuasive case for north - south cooperation. that some of the issues raised in the brandt commission are relevant even today is a testimonial to the foresight and wisdom of the commission ’ s members such as dr. jha. 5. this lecture series in his name honours dr. jha ’ s outstanding service to the nation and his leadership of the reserve bank during a very critical period. so far, there have been 11 lectures. the last one was given by prof. john taylor in february 2010, two years ago, on “ lessons from the financial crisis for monetary policy in emerging markets ”. the lecture by prof. obstfeld this evening will be the 12th in the series. the distinguished speaker – prof. maurice obstfeld 6. it is perhaps presumptuous to introduce prof. maurise obstfeld, who is a distinguished academic and internationally renowned economist. regardless, i will indulge in the pleasure of doing so because the occasion demands it. 7. prof. obstfeld is currently the class of 1958 professor of economics and director of the center for international and development economic research ( cider ) at the university of california in berkeley. he got his doctorate from the massachusetts institute of bis central bankers ’ speeches technology ( mit ) in 1979 under the supervision of the legendary professor rudiger dornbusch of the textbook fame. thereafter, prof. obstfeld taught at columbia, university of pennsylvania and harvard before moving to uc, berkeley in 1989. 8. publishing papers is part of plying the trade of being an academic. a few of them also write text books. but far fewer of them write text books that become standard teaching material cutting across university and national barriers. prof. obstfeld belongs to that select category. many among the audience here must have learnt economics from his seminal textbook on international economics, co - authored with prof. paul krugman. 9. economists have been categorized in several ways – classical and neo - classical, macro and micro, keynesian and monetarist, free market and leftist. it is fashionable these days to categorize economists as salt water or fresh water to classify their academic persuasion which, curiously, seems to be correlated with whether their university is located inland or on the coast. prof