Economics students at Harrow College have taken part in the fourteenth annual Target Two Point Zero Bank of England and The Times Interest Rate Challenge.
Students Ishika Agarwal, Yasmine Dehimi, Shaber Gulmohammed, Mateos Grigorian, Zuhayr Kassam and Aaron Pattini all took part in the regional heats of the competition on Wednesday 27 November.
Over 300 schools and colleges took part in the challenge. Students aged 16 to 18 from across the country formed in teams to analyse UK and global economic data and their possible impact on inflation, in the same way that the Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee does each month.
This is the first time Harrow College has made the regional heats and marks a great achievement for the students taking part.
The team made a presentation on the future of UK interest rates to a panel of leading economists from the Bank of England. The students also took part in a question and answer session in front of the panal. The panel commended Harrow College’s students for being the only team to grasp the importance of the transmission mechanism – that being how interest rate changes feed through to the economy.
Rosie Smith, Bank of England agent for the North East and chair of the judging panel said: “[The] teams gave some excellent presentations at what is a complicated – but interesting – time for economic policy”.
The Latymer School, went on to win the regional heat, with The Charter School coming second. Other schools that took part in the event alongside Harrow College were Queen’s College, Stoke Newington School and Sixth Form, The St Marylebone C of E School and The Tiffin Girls’ School.