ECONOMICS students and their parents were treated to a speech by professor David Miles, a member of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee.

Mr Miles visited the Saffron Walden County High School’s annual Economics Awards Celebration evening.

His talk, ‘Monetary Policy in Extraordinary Times’, outlined how the MPC set interest rates each month and how quantitative easing works. He also outlined how the bank currently see the economic outlook.

In a lively question and answer session afterwards, Prof Miles acknowledged the outlook for the Eurozone was hampering the UK economy and that the once lax lending policies of UK banking industry, policies that were already slowly changing, was understandably blamed for the crisis.

Following his speech, 10 students were awarded prizes for their effort and excellence in their studies.