Year 12 Bank of England Competition

Dear Economist

If you are interested in becoming a member of the Cherwell Target 2.0 Team competing on Nov 26^th . I need you to read the following guidance and to be prepared to make a 3 minute powerpoint presentation and answer questions inside an additional 5 minutes on one of the following areas. Based on this presentation to be made on Monday 3^rd November in Room 1 between 3.20-4.20 I will select four students.

Presentation Topics, please choose one to base your recommendations on:

·         Financial markets

·         International Economy

·         Money, credit, demand and output

·         Supply, costs and prices

Good luck

Mr Gray

GUIDANCE

You will receive final heat instructions shortly, but below are a few reminders. You will find more information on the Target Two Point Zero website in the FAQs section.

• The objective is for your team to make a presentation that sets out their view on current economic conditions and future prospects, culminating in a policy recommendation aimed at meeting the inflation target which is currently 2%. In doing so, teams may wish to consider how their decision fits with any 'forward guidance' communicated by the Monetary Policy Committee. Your team should decide on the level of Bank Rate, asset purchases or sales, and whether to provide forward guidance taking the MPC's decision set on 6 November as the basis of your decision. Your team's decision therefore has three parts: whether to increase or decrease Bank Rate; whether to increase or decrease the level of asset purchases; and whether to provide any new forward guidance for future monetary policy.

• The rules require that presentations should be no more than 15 minutes long, but they can be shorter. It is the quality of the argument rather than the length of the presentation that is important. Following the presentation, the judges will ask the team some questions. When answering judges' questions, the approach used is at the discretion of the teams. The key point is that team members should work together as a team. Teams will be marked down if answers are dominated by one or two team members.

• Each team member must make a significant oral contribution to the presentation. Team members may refer to hand-held notes and to their visual aids but they should not read verbatim from their scripts, laptop screens or visual aids.

• The format of the presentation is up to the team. PowerPoint facilities will be provided. It may be possible to provide other equipment if specifically requested. PowerPoint presentations must be in Microsoft PowerPoint 2010 compatible. The presentation should be stored on a USB Memory Stick but should not be compressed i.e. no zip-files. It is advisable to avoid unusual fonts and advanced features.

• Teams must bring 3 printed handouts of their presentation for the judges. The handouts will not to be taken into consideration by the judges in their marking and you will not be penalised if, for technical reasons, you are unable to provide them. The handouts are simply to help the judges, who find it useful to have hard copies of the presentation, on which to make notes. They also provide back up in a format which does not rely on computer technology in the case of equipment failure on the day. The format is up to teams. The important thing is that the printed slides are clear and easy to read with space to make notes. Any last minute changes to slides can be made in manuscript at the event. Teams will not be marked down for this.

DATA

The next set of monthly datasheets were available on Friday 10 October.

Please note that the latest MPC minutes have been published. Please click on the following link to access:
http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/publications/Pages/default.aspx

PARTICIPANTS

A full list of participants in this year's Challenge is also available on the Target Two Point Zero website.