Former Goldman economist Pill is named to top economics role by BoE

The Bank of England named Huw Pill, a former chief European economist at Goldman Sachs with lengthy previous experience at the European Central Bank, as its new chief economist. He replaced Andy Haldane, who stepped down earlier this year. Governor Andrew Bailey said that Huw will make a major contribution to monetary policy, and also to the broader work of the Bank. And added that he is looking forward to work with him.

Pill worked at Goldman Sachs until 2018. He currently is a senior lecturer in business administration at Harvard Business School. He had spent many years at the ECB, where he was deputy director-general for research, although he did work at the BoE from 1990-92 after finishing his undergraduate studies. The role of chief economist is the only position on the nine-member Monetary Policy Committee which is appointed by the BoE itself.

Haldane voted in his last MPC meeting in June. But he has remained at the BoE ahead of starting a new role as head of the Royal Society of Arts, a public policy body. It is always difficult to know where a new member stands on the hawk-dove spectrum until they have made a few speeches, but it’s unlikely that he’ll be more hawkish than Haldane as chief economist, according to James Smith, an economist at ING. Financial markets currently price in a first interest rate rise by the BoE for May 2022.

Pill will start at the BoE on Sept. 6 and report to Deputy Governor Ben Broadbent. Near-zero interest rates and quantitative easing had blurred the lines between monetary and fiscal policy. According to Pill direct link can be drawn between the BoE’s purchases of British government bonds and fiscal space for the government. He said that the central banks’ expanding responsibilities meant they had become embroiled in controversial issues, citing then-governor Mark Carney’s interventions during the Scottish independence and Brexit referendum campaigns.