Governor of the Bank of England among witnesses to face questions from the Economic Affairs Committee this week

This week the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee will be holding two evidence sessions.

The first session, on Tuesday 13 February, will be on the sustainability of the UK’s national debt inquiry. The second session, on Wednesday 14 February, will be the annual scrutiny session with the Governor of the Bank of England, Andrew Bailey.

At 3pm on Tuesday the committee will hear from:

• Carl Emmerson, Deputy Director at the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS)
• Peder Beck-Friis, Senior Vice President and Economist at PIMCO
• Sonja Gibbs, Head of Sustainable Finance at the Institute of International Finance (IIF).

This session, which is open to the public, will be held in room 4A of the House of Lords and streamed on Parliament TV.

Topics the committee is likely to cover in this session include:

• The current, public debt trajectories in the UK and across the G7.
• Government action required to ensure the sustainability of long-term debt.
• Possible implications the structure of the UK’s national debt has for its short
  and longer-term funding.
• Whether the metric of debt as a percentage of GDP adequately captures the sustainability of the national debt.

At 3pm on Wednesday the committee will question the Governor of the Bank of England, Andrew Bailey. This session, which is also open to the public, will be held in room 3 of the House of Lords and streamed on Parliament TV.

Topics the committee is likely to cover in this session include:

• The January 2024 inflation figures (due to be published on Wednesday 14 February 2024).
• Disparities between the Bank and the Office for Budget Responsibility’s (OBR) forecasts.
• The Bank’s assessment of the UK labour market.
• Quantitative tightening.
• The appetite for UK debt.
• The sustainability of the UK’s national debt over the medium to longer term.
• The likely long-term real interest rate in the UK.
• The Bank of England’s response to the committee’s report about the Bank.