Priya
Markets
Economics, Cambridge
MSc Economics, UCL
How does your work help the Bank?
The work that I really enjoy doing at the Bank is something called market intelligence, and what that means is we go out and talk to individual firms, market participants, and from these individual conversations, we get an aggregate picture of the outlook of those markets, and the risks to our monetary policy and our financial stability outlook.
These conversations are used, in part, to inform the decisions by the Monetary Policy Committee and also the Financial Stability Board. I really enjoy participating in these market intelligence initiatives and have visited different countries and met lots of different people. For example, soon I will be going to New York, where I will be talking to our US counterparts about conditions in their markets, and also trying to identify any global risks that might impact on our UK economic outlook.
What were your first impressions of the Bank?
When you first join the Bank as a graduate, you take part in a three-week graduate induction programme. This is a great programme that the Bank runs and it allows you to better understand the different areas of the Bank and the work that we do there. You also participate in this work and you get to put together presentations and give those presentations to senior members of the Bank – for example, heads of division – as well as participating in lunches and dinners with previous governors – for example – Sir Eddie George – as well as other eminent City figures.
The graduate induction programme is always great because you meet and make friends with a whole bunch of people who you then keep in touch with when you move to your proper job. We still regularly keep in touch – we go for lunches, for example – but we also participate in the post-induction training programme. So you get to meet up and share stories about how their jobs are going too. And then when you’re ready to move on – for example into a different job – you can also talk to them about their experiences and identify areas of the Bank where you might be suited, depending on your skills.
Why is your work important?
I work in the Markets area of the Bank where we manage our operational and analysis responsibilities. So it’s been very important, particularly in the last nine months, that the Monetary Policy Committee and Financial Stability Board (and other senior members of the Bank) understand what’s going on in financial markets, and the implications for the jobs that they do.
We’ve spent a lot of time gathering market intelligence and doing analysis on this to brief these committees and other senior members, and we’ve worked together with people across the Bank to do this. This means that the work’s been very varied, diverse and challenging – but it’s also very very topical, and that makes it really interesting.