19 August 2008
The Fiscal Policy Panel (FPP) is now finalising its first report, which is due to be published on Friday 5th September.
This follows the Panel’s visit to Jersey in July when they met local interest groups, including representatives from business and trade unions, to listen to their opinions. The information gathered helped the Panel to understand the economic environment and latest conditions affecting the Island.
The FPP is an advisory body which has been set up to advise the Treasury and Resources Minister on the Island’s fiscal (tax and spending) policy and how it can help achieve the States’ objectives of economic growth with low inflation. The Panel is part of the new Fiscal Framework agreed by the States in October 2006.
The role of the FPP is to publish an annual report for the Treasury and Resources Minister that:
- Examines the strength of the Jersey economy and the position in the economic cycle
- Comments on the appropriateness of the States financial position/forecasts given the above.
- Recommends policy regarding the Stabilisation Fund.
Chairman of the Panel Joly Dixon said: “The use of an independent panel of professional and experienced economists to advise on fiscal policy in this way is a unique arrangement to our knowledge and represents an innovative approach to inform decision making.
“The advice on fiscal policy in our forthcoming report is aimed at helping to create the conditions for long term growth and stability in the Jersey economy.”
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Notes to Editors:
1) The Fiscal Policy Panel is a group of three independent professional economists with extensive experience in policy making. The Panel is part of the new Fiscal Framework agreed by the States in October 2006. Other key elements of the framework include the setting up of a Stabilisation Fund to smooth expenditure and promote growth through stability.
The Panel’s five guiding principles are:
- Stability is at the heart of sustainable prosperity
- Fiscal policy needs to be focused on the medium term
- Policy should aim to be stable and predictable
- Supply in the economy is just as important as demand
- Low inflation is fundamental to the competitiveness of the economy.
2) The three members of the Fiscal Policy Panel are Joly Dixon CMG (Chairman), Christopher Allsopp CBE and Marian Bell CBE.
Joly Dixon CMG, worked for nearly 30 years at the European Commission, holding a variety of senior posts. He was Director for International Economic Affairs in the Directorate General for Economic and Financial Affairs from 1992 to 2003. For the previous five and a half years, he was a member of the cabinet of President Jacques Delors, concentrating on economic and monetary issues.
Christopher Allsopp CBE is Director of the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies. He is a Fellow of New College and Reader in Economic Policy at the University of Oxford. He has recently completed a Review of Statistics for Economic Policymaking (the 'Allsopp Review'). He is a former Member of the Monetary Policy Committee (2000-2003) and of the Court of Directors of the Bank of England (1997-2000). He is the Editor of the Oxford Review of Economic Policy and a Director of Oxford Economic Forecasting.
From June 2002 to June 2005, Marian Bell CBE was an external Member of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England, appointed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, to set interest rates to meet the UK Government’s inflation target. Prior to that, Marian held posts at The Royal Bank of Scotland where her roles included managing the Treasury and Capital Markets Research function, and at HM Treasury where she worked on modelling and forecasting the UK economy for fiscal policy purposes. She set up Alpha Economics in September 2000 to undertake independent research and consultancy.
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