AN INSIGHT into the workings of the Bank of England and its Monetary Policy Committee was given to local business representatives and politicians yesterday.

Speaking at a Commerce and Employment seminar, which was closed to the media, Chris Piper, (pictured) the bank’s agent for central southern England, reportedly told delegates of the encouraging signs he was seeing in the economy from his work gathering information and data for the MPC.

The information he collects, along with that of 11 other agents around the country, helps the committee decide on whether there should be any change in the UK base rate.

Deputy Treasury and Resources minister Jack Honeybill said Mr Piper was generally positive about what he was seeing from his region, and that the seminar had been a good opportunity for people locally to compare how the island’s economy was faring compared to the UK’s.

‘He claimed there are signs that unemployment appears to have stopped haemorrhaging and that slowly but surely there are shoots of recovery in the economy.

‘He also told us the price of property was starting to show an improvement on both the personal and commercial front and that prices were starting to work their way back to where they used to be.’