Students from Watford Grammar School for Girls win place in economic competition regional final (From Watford Observer)

Students from Watford Grammar School for Girls win place in economic competition regional final

2:40pm Wednesday 25th November 2009

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Young economists from Watford Grammar School for Girls have banked a place in the next round of a national competition.

The tenth annual Target Two Point Zero Interest Rate Challenge, run by the Bank of England and The Times, sees teams consider the factors affecting the UK's economic and inflation outlook.

They must then decide what interest rate should be set to meet the Government's 2.0 per cent inflation target.

A team of Upper Sixth Formers from Watford Girls', in Lady's Close, travelled to Luton on Monday where they competed in one of 43 regional heats.

A-Level economics students Heather Ramage, Anushi Patel, Isabel Tiemann and Leila Panju, backed up by Sonam Shah and Hannah Marshall, gave a presentation before facing questions from the panel of judges.

After recommending an interest rate of 0.5 per cent and a total of £200 billion of asset purchases, which matches current Government policy, the team was crowned winners and will now move forward to the regional final in February next year, ahead of the national final at the Bank of England on March 19.

Bob Nutter, head of social science at Watford Girls', said the school had taken part in the competition since it began.

He said: “Their best achievement was their ability to think on their feet when asked very difficult questions by Bank of England officials.

“That's what in the feedback we received was the reason they won.”

Gary Hunt, a representative from the Bank of England, said: “It's not about the decision but how they arrived at the decision and made the case about how they weren't going to do anything different.

“The idea of the competition is to test their understanding of economics and how they understand inflation rather than what the final answer is.”

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