The Bank of England has been at the heart of the official response to the impact of Covid-19 on the UK economy. Malindi Myers, Bank of England Agent for the South West, will walk you through the Bank’s latest thinking on how the economy is performing, and how the evidence on the impact of Covid-19, and Brexit, is unfolding. She will touch upon the growth path of the economy during 2020, the household and business response to the current economic dynamic, developments in the labour market, the path of inflation and some indications of the impact of EU Exit on the UK economy through two recent Bank of England surveys. This perspective sets the stage for the Monetary Policy Committee to decide on interest rates and quantitative easing as it supports the economy back to health and inflation back to its 2% target.

In our ninth Festival of Economics, co-programmed by Diane Coyle and Richard Davies, economists and experts from around the world debate with each other – and their audiences – some of the key economic questions of our time.