Wednesday 21 March 2012 Four upper sixth students from the Grammar School at Leeds (GSAL) have had a good run for their money in a national student economics competition run by the Bank of England and the Times. Taking on members of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) at their own game were Josh Masser, Urvashi Chahal, Alex Rankine and Daniel Christen, who won two regional heats to secure their place in the national final of the Target 2.0 Interest Rate Challenge held at the Bank of England. The team, all studying Economics at A Level, faced a panel of judges that included members of the MPC to give a presentation on their assessment of the state of the economy and the outlook for inflation. They were up against five other schools and emerged as runners up, earning a cash prize of £5,000, with St Paul’s School, Barnes, taking the top prize. GSAL’s Head of Economics Chris Law said, “To be runners up is a major triumph – to reach the National Final they have had to win two heats involving major schools across the north of England in a massive test of intellect and nerve.” “At the National Final they had to present for 20 minutes to a panel of four judges, including three members of the actual Monetary Policy Committee who are amongst the most important policy-makers in Europe. They then faced 20 minutes of hostile questioning, and all this before a large audience in the Bank’s main conference chamber with the press and cameras in attendance.” Josh Masser, who has a place to read Economics at Nottingham University next year, said, “The whole experience has been extremely valuable to my studies and a good grounding for my degree. We all read some very thick reports and had a few late nights during our preparation for the competition! Our teamwork really paid off on the day – this is one of the criteria and the panel commended us for our performance during the Q&A.” “Although we were initially deflated by the result, we are very proud of our achievement – out of 284 schools we made it to the final six and have been declared amongst the top eight young economists in the country.” Urvashi Chahal plans to study Economics at University College London. She said, “The work really stretched us, tackling some issues that you wouldn’t expect to study until Masters level. The visit to the Bank of England was inspiring – we were given a full tour and even saw the vaults – and has stimulated my ambition to work as an economist there.” The judging panel comprised Charles Bean, the Bank’s Deputy Governor for monetary policy and member of the MPC (chair); Paul Fisher, Executive Director, Markets and member of the MPC; Dr Martin Weale, external member of the MPC; and Anatole Kaletsky, Editor-at-Large of The Times Pictured are l-r Daniel Christen, Alex Rankine, Charles Bean, Chris Law, Urvashi Chahal and Josh Masser. General Senior School Sixth Form News
