Spotlight: Perspectives on Industrial Strategy – Fergus Cumming on the Bank of England and UK regional productivity

The Spotlight: Perspectives on Industrial Strategy seminar series brings in key thinkers from academic institutions and think tanks to 1 Victoria Street to talk about their work and how it relates to the 10 pillars of the Industrial Strategy. This is a great opportunity for anyone interested in the latest thinking on the Industrial Strategy agenda.

In this session Fergus Cumming will present on the Bank of England’s latest thinking on regional productivity performance across the UK. He will discuss BoE Chief Economist Andy Haldane’s recent speeches on regional and national productivity, why these were a landmark for the Bank’s thinking on regional inequality, and the Bank’s future work and priorities in this area (including better understanding the propagation of regional shocks throughout the economy).

Fergus Cumming joined the Risk Assessment Division in Financial stability at the Bank of England in 2010 and in 2012 moved to the Bank’s Monetary Analysis Directorate. In 2015 he moved to Oxford as part of a Bank-sponsored PhD where he currently works on a range of projects, including understanding how regional shocks propagate across the UK via corporate balance. In the summer of 2016 he helped Bank of England Chief Economist Andy Haldane with much of the analysis behind his speech on regional productivity differences.