The Shadow Monetary Policy Committee (SMPC) is a group of independent economists drawn from academia, the City and elsewhere, which meets at the Institute of Economic Affairs, to discuss the state of the international and British economies.
What is the SMPC?
The inaugural meeting of the SMPC was held in July 1997, immediately after the Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee was established, and the Committee has met regularly since then. Meetings are held once a month. The decisions and minutes of the SMPC are published a few days before the Bank of England’s own interest rate decision each month. The SMPC’s deliberations are covered regularly in The Sunday Times and The Business and other leading newspapers.
Most members are available for press comment and media appearances, subject to other commitments. Please contact Ruth Porter, telephone 0207 799 8920, if you would like comment from an SMPC member.
SMPC minutes are distributed by the IEA and Lombard Street Research and are posted monthly on the IEA website.
SMPC membership
Chairman: David B. Smith, Visiting Professor, University of Derby.
Secretary: Professor Kent Matthews, Julian Hodge Professor of Money and Banking, Cardiff Business School, Cardiff University.
IEA representative: Professor Philip Booth, Editorial and Programme Director, IEA and Professor of Insurance and Risk Management at Cass Business School.
Other current members of the Committee are: Professor Patrick Minford (Cardiff Business School, Cardiff University); Professor Tim Congdon (Visiting Fellow, London School of Economics); Jamie Dannhauser (Lombard Street research); Anthony Evans (ESCP Europe Business School); Professor Gordon Pepper (Lombard Street Research and Cass Business School); Dr Peter Warburton (Economic Perspectives Ltd); Professor Roger Bootle (Deloitte and Capital Economics Ltd); John Greenwood (AMVESCAP); Dr Andrew Lilico (Europe Economics); Graeme Leach (Institute of Directors); Professor Akos Valentinyi (Cardiff Business School, Cardiff University) and Trevor Williams (Lloyds TSB).
Other IEA Work on Monetary Policy
The IEA has contributed to the debate on macro-economic and monetary policy since its inception. Other IEA publications on monetary policy can be found by searching the website by issue or from the IEA publications (e.g. Were 364 Economists All Wrong? or Money and Asset Prices in Boom and Bust) and recommended books (e.g. Issues in Monetary Policy: the relationship between money and financial markets) sections of the website.
