BRITAIN'S new Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr Gordon Brown, opted for experience over politics yesterday when he appointed four respected, but neutral, economists to the Bank of England's monetary policy committee.
The four outsiders join civil servants from the newly independent Bank of England on a new committee which will decide the level of British interest rates at monthly meetings.
Mr Brown appointed: Professor Charles Goodhart, from the London School of Economics; Dr DeAnne Julius, chief economist of British Airways; Sir Alan Budd, chief economic adviser at the Treasury; and Professor Willem Buiter, of Cambridge University.
Mr Brown said the four would bring a range of experience to the Bank's new committee.
Professors Goodhart and Buiter are leading academics, Dr Julius is an industrialist and Sir Alan is a Whitehall mandarin with close ties to the previous Conservative government. None is strongly associated with the Labour Party.
"They will bring not only recognised expertise in their own fields but a breadth of experience of finance and industry to the making of monetary policy in this country," said Mr Brown.
Leading figures in London's financial district welcomed the appointments and said their experience would give the new monetary regime the necessary credibility.
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