Swati Dhingra To Be First Indian-Origin Woman To Join Bank Of England’s Monetary Policy Committee

Dhingra studied at Delhi University and has a Masters degree from Delhi School of Economics.

A general view of the Bank of England (Source: Getty)

New Delhi: A leading UK-based academic, Dr. Swati Dhingra, has been appointed as an independent member of the Bank of England interest rate-setting committee. She is the first Indian-origin woman to be nominated for this post. Dhingra is the Associate Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics (LSE). She specialises in International Economics and Applied Microeconomics. Dhingra studied at Delhi University and has a Masters degree from the Delhi School of Economics. 

She has completed her MS and Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and has been a member of the UK's Trade Modeling Review Expert Panel and LSE's Economic Diplomacy Commission. 

According to the report, she will join the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) for a three-year term on August 9. Dhingra will replace the current independent member Michael Saunders, who has been in MPC since August 2016.

"It will be an honour to learn from the Bank's vast expertise and regional visits, to listen and to explain', and to bring evidence to bear on the crucial policy decisions of the committee," she said.

Significantly, the independent member of the Bank of England MPC decides to conduct the monetary policy of Britain. This includes the Governor of the Bank of England, its three deputy governors, a member of the bank, with the responsibility for monetary policy, and four external members who are appointed by the Chancellor. 

The report said that British Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced the appointment of Dhingra last week, in which she was described as a person who would prove valuable to the committee. Each member of MPC specialises in the field of economics and monetary policy.