In the run-up to the visit of the Fiscal Policy Panel (FPP) to the Island in early July, the Panel is inviting members of the public to make written submissions on economic issues that relate to the Panel’s work. The role of the FPP is to publish an annual report in August each year for the Treasury and Resources Minister that:
recommends policy regarding the Stabilisation Fund. The visit is intended to help the Panel gain a full understanding of the latest conditions facing the Jersey economy. During their fact-finding visit they will be meeting local interest groups, including representatives from business and the trade unions.
Chairman of the Panel Joly Dixon said: “To help inform our work, it is important that we gain a full understanding of how the Jersey economy is performing. We would be delighted to receive the views of Islanders on the important economic and fiscal issues facing Jersey .”
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Notes to Editors:
The deadline for written submissions to the FPP is Friday 27 June.
These should be sent to Mark Macgregor, Economist, Chief Minister’s Department, 5th floor Cyril Le Marquand House, PO Box 140, St Helier JE4 8QT or e-mailed to him at: m.macgregor@gov.je
The Fiscal Policy Panel is a group of three independent professional economists with extensive experience in policy making. Its task is to advise the Minister for Treasury and Resources on the Island ’s future 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. Other key elements included 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.
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.
For further information please contact:
Dougie Peedle, States Economic Adviser, on 440446 or Mark Richardson, Communications Officer, on 440422.
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