Monetary Policy Committee: Inflation

Lord Howarth of Newport Excerpts

Wednesday 13th February 2013 Lords Chamber

[Lord Deighton]

I thank my noble friend for his expert endorsement. He is absolutely right: our inflation target has served this economy extremely well. The Chancellor and the incoming governor as well as the existing governor have been clear that it would take a very high hurdle to climb over to find a better structure than the one that we currently have.

[Lord Howarth of Newport]

My Lords, particularly after the bad experiences of previous decades, this—like any—Government should always bear in mind that if we again lost control of inflation, the consequences would be impoverishing, divisive and altogether malign.

[Lord Deighton]

My Lords, I could not agree more with the noble Lord’s observation. There is nothing more insidious than inflation, which is why sticking to our inflation-targeting mandate, which the independent Monetary Policy Committee pursues with great skill and judgment, is absolutely the right thing to do.