This year’s Annual Conference - Future-Proofing the World Economy - will be held on Friday 17 November, kindly hosted by Bloomberg LP in their offices at 3 Queen Victoria Street, London, EC4N 4TQ.

Chaired by Stephanie Flanders, Head of Bloomberg Economics, speakers include Sir Dave Ramsden, Deputy Governor, Bank of England;  Sir Dieter Helm, Professor of Economic Policy, University of Oxford and George Parker, Political Editor, FT.

Registration and a light lunch is from 12.00 ahead of conference start at 12.50. Networking drinks will follow the close of conference.

This conference is FREE to attend for SPE members and tickets will be given on a first-come first-served basis. Non-members wishing to attend can do so if they join the Society, for further info please click here.

*** The Conference is now full ****

Programme:

INTRODUCTION

12.00   Registration & light lunch

12.50   Opening Address
             George Buckley, Chair, SPE

12.55   Chair’s Introduction
             Stephanie Flanders, Head of Bloomberg Economics

SESSION 1

13.00   UK monetary policy
             Sir Dave Ramsden, Deputy Governor for Markets and Banking, Bank of England

13.40   Climate change - implications for the economy and macroeconomic policy
             Sir Dieter Helm, Professor of Economic Policy, University of Oxford
             Danae Kyriakopoulou,  Co-Head of the Bank of England’s Climate Hub
             Mark Cliffe, Visiting Fellow, LIBF and University of Exeter (Moderator)     

14.35  Tea

SESSION 2

14.55   Is technology the answer to flagging global productivity?
             Tera Allas, Director of Research and Economics, McKinsey & Company
             Joseph Briggs, Senior Global Economist, Goldman Sachs
           

15.45   How to make economic forecasting fit for purpose
             Sir Charles Bean, Professor of Economics, LSE
             Ana Gãlvao, Senior Economist, Global Modelling Team, Bloomberg           

16.25   Sunak vs Starmer - The next UK government’s economic priorities
             George Parker, Political Editor, Financial Times

16.55   Chair’s closing remarks and close of conference       

17.00   Post conference drinks

18.00   Close of conference

Meet the Speakers:

George Buckley is Chair of the Society of Professional Economists. He joined Nomura in January 2017 and is currently Chief UK & European Economist, having previously been Deutsche Bank’s Chief UK Economist. He has 25 years’ experience in the City, following a PhD at the University of Bristol (housing and mortgage markets).

Stephanie Flanders has been Senior Executive Editor for Economics at Bloomberg News and head of Bloomberg Economics since October 2017. She was previously Chief Market Strategist for Europe at J P Morgan Asset Management in London (2013-17) and BBC Economics Editor (2008-13).  She served in the second Clinton Administration as speech writer and senior advisor to US Treasury Secretary Lawrence H. Summers (1997-2001).

Sir Dave Ramsden joined the Bank of England to become Deputy Governor for Markets and Banking on 4 September 2017. He is responsible for oversight of Markets, Banking Payments and Innovation, and Resolution directorates. Dave is a member of the Monetary Policy Committee, the Financial Policy Committee and the Prudential Regulation Committee. He is also the Chair of the RTGS/CHAPS Board. Before joining the Bank, Dave was Chief Economic Adviser to the Treasury and Head of the Government Economic Service from 2007 – 2017.

Sir Dieter Helm is Professor of Economic Policy at the University of Oxford and Fellow in Economics at New College, Oxford. From 2012 to 2020, he was Independent Chair of the Natural Capital Committee, providing advice to the government on the sustainable use of natural capital. Dieter specialises in three key areas: Energy & Climate; Regulation, Utilities & Infrastructure; and Natural Capital & the Environment. He provides extensive expert advice to UK and European governments, regulators and companies across all three areas.

Danae Kyriakopoulou is the Co-Head of the Bank of England’s Climate Hub. The Hub supports the institution with the strategy and capabilities that enable it to play a leading role in ensuring the financial system and the Bank itself are resilient to the risks from climate change and in understanding its macroeconomic implications. Prior to joining the BoE she was a Distinguished Policy Fellow at the London School of Economics. There, she led the Grantham Research Institute’s policy work on the intersections of climate change, international finance and economic development, including work for the G7, G20 and COP presidencies and the Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action.

Mark Cliffe, Visiting Fellow at Global Systems Institute, University of Exeter and Visiting Professor, London Institute of Banking & Finance, is an experienced economist and Board Advisor. At the Global Systems Institute he leads on sustainability projects, with a focus on developing decision-useful climate scenarios. Based on his experience in banking and consultancy on climate risk and opportunities, he co-launched the Real World Climate Scenarios initiative last year to accelerate the development of fit-for-purpose scenarios for policymakers and business.

Tera Allas is Director of Research and Economics in McKinsey’s United Kingdom and Ireland office, working closely with the McKinsey Global Institute. She leads McKinsey’s research on the macroeconomic outlook, growth, and productivity, bringing together deep expertise and more than three decades of experience in strategy, corporate finance, economics, and public policy.

Joseph Briggs is a senior global economist in Global Investment Research at Goldman Sachs where he co-leads the Global Economics Research team. Prior to assuming his current role, Joseph worked on the US economics team for three years. Before joining Goldman Sachs in 2019, Joseph was a senior economist at the Federal Reserve Board where he briefed the governors on economic and financial developments, led the construction of the Fed’s Distributional Financial Accounts, and conducted research that was published in leading academic journals like the Journal of Political Economy and Journal of Financial Economics. Joseph also previously worked as an economist with the Vanguard Research Initiative, and previously taught at John Hopkins University and New York University. Joseph received an MA and a PhD in economics from New York University and a BS in mathematics from North Carolina State University. At Goldman, Joseph writes research on a variety of topics related to the US and global economies and financial markets.

Sir Charles Bean is a Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics and Chairman of the Centre for Economic Policy Research. Between 2016 and 2021, he was also an executive member at the Office for Budget Responsibility. From 2000 to 2014, he served at the Bank of England as Chief Economist and then Deputy Governor for Monetary Policy, sitting on both the Monetary Policy and Financial Policy Committees and representing the Bank internationally. Before joining the Bank, he was a member of the economics faculty at LSE and has also worked at HM Treasury.

Ana Gãlvao is a Senior Economist in the Global Modelling Team at Bloomberg Economics. She previously worked as Professor of Economic Modelling and Forecasting at Warwick Business School. Her extensive academic publication record includes highly influential contributions to empirical macroeconomics and forecasting. She is a fellow of the International Association of Applied Econometrics, and the CEPR.

George Parker has been the FT’s Political Editor since 2007, covering major UK events including the financial crash, Brexit, the Covid pandemic, the death of the Queen and the rise and fall of numerous prime ministers. Previously he was the FT’s bureau chief in Brussels.