MNI POLICY: The National Institute of Economic...>

UK: MNI POLICY: The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR)

published its quarterly forecasts for the UK and world economies Wednesday ahead

of the Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee's (MPC's) quarterly projections

which are out Thursday. NIESR's work highlighted the tricky challenges facing

it, and the BOE, in producing forecasts for the UK economy at present: NIESR

anticipates that the MPC will hike Bank Rate by 25 basis points to 0.75% on the

Thursday, with the policy rate then rising on up to 1.25% in 2019. The outlook

is cloudy with NIESR head Jagjit Chadha saying that the MPC should take the

opportunity to stress the uncertainty of its policy stance. Chadha said that the

MPC should stress that it is ready to reverse the hike, if necessary.

- For full story see MNI Main Wire at 00:01 BST 08/01.