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Posted: Wednesday 2 March 2011

Hutchesons' Pupils hit the Target

Four S6 pupils from Hutchesons' have won the Scotland, Northern Ireland and North West England area final of the Bank of England Target Two Point Zero competition.

Bank of England 2.0 CompetitionHaving won the Scotland regional final in December, Ross Davidson, David Henderson, Alastair MacMahon and Victor Mo travelled to Manchester with Head of Economics, Matt Bergin, on Tuesday 1 March.

As in the heats, the area final had the teams of four students taking on the role of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee and making a presentation to a panel of Bank of England judges. Each team had to assess economic conditions and the outlook for inflation and then decide what level of interest rate, or other monetary policy measure, is necessary in order to meet the Government's inflation target of 2.0%.

The judges' task was to assess each team's understanding of the economy and monetary policy, the strength and style of their presentation, the arguments made in support of their monetary policy decision, and their response to judges' questions. There were no right or wrong answers. Each team was judged on the merits of the case presented.

"On the Tuesday, we were the first team to present," says Ross Davidson, "and we some nerves we did so, but came off-stage feeling slightly disappointed with our answers to questions. It was then an early train ride home and an anxious wait for the result, which turned out to be positive.

"We thoroughly enjoyed our experience and are excitedly looking forward to the National Final in London which will be a great opportunity for us." 

The Hutchesons' team recommended an interest rate of 0.5% compared with the Bank of England's official rate of 0.5% set by the Monetary Policy Committee on 10 February 2011. They also recommended a total of £200bn of asset purchases under the Asset Purchase Facility, compared with the £200bn agreed by the MPC on 10 February 2011.

They will now complete against five other schools in the National Final of the Bank of England and The Times Interest Rate Challenge, which will take place at the Bank of England on 18 March 2011.

 

 

Tags: Academic Success, Economics & Business Studies

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