We start our 2025 programme with a debate on the outlook for the economy in Europe with three leading forecasters: Silvia Ardagna, Barclays, Paul Hollingsworth, BNP Paribas and Veronika Roharova, BlackRock.

Silvia Ardagna is a Managing Director and Head of European Economics Research, Barclays. Based in London, Silvia leads the team covering the Euro area countries and some of the small open European economies. Silvia joined Barclays in 2021 from Goldman Sachs, where she was a managing director in the Investment Strategy Group in the Consumer and Investment Management Division and in Global Investment Research from 2012 to 2021.

Paul Hollingsworth is a Director and Head of Developed Market Economics for Markets 360 at BNP Paribas, based in London. Key areas of focus include inflation and central bank views. He engages with a wide range of clients on a regular basis through meetings, conference calls and formal presentations, as well as contributing to a wide range of BNP Paribas Markets 360 research. Prior to joining BNP Paribas in May 2018, Paul was Senior UK Economist at Capital Economics. He has also worked at HM Treasury in London in the Macroeconomic Analysis division. Paul holds a Masters in Economic History from the London School of Economics.

Veronika Roharova is a Director in Macro Research within BlackRock’s Fundamental Fixed Income group. She oversees the group’s views on Euro area and UK growth, inflation, fiscal and monetary policy, works closely with portfolio managers on fixed income asset allocation and represents BlackRock in engagements with clients, central banks, and government officials. Prior to joining BlackRock in 2023, she served as Head of Euro Area Economics at Credit Suisse International.

The panel will be chaired by George Buckley,  Chief UK Economist, Nomura and SPE Chair.

The event starts at 5.30pm on 14 January and will be held at the offices of Norton Rose Fulbright LLP, 3 More London Riverside, London, SE1 2AQ.

Registration is from 5.00pm. The talks will be followed by networking drinks until 7.30pm.

Members must pre-register well in advance. They can do so via the SPE office.

We are grateful to Norton Rose Fulbright for generously hosting this event.