Public Confidence in the Bank of England

Main points

• Even though inflation has consistently fallen in the past two quarters, public confidence in the Bank of England’s ability to bring inflation down and closer to its target has reached its historical low since the Bank started recording these data (figure A1). These results from the Bank’s Inflation Attitudes survey are surprising because when the survey was conducted, inflation had just reached its lowest rate in 15 months, falling from 11 per cent in October 2022 to 6.8 per cent in July 2023. This change was also reflected in the respondents’ expectations about inflation, suggesting that they were aware of this improvement in inflation outcomes.
• This box explores the sociodemographic characteristics and perceptions of the respondents that are associated with satisfaction with the Bank’s performance. Satisfaction with the work of the Bank matters because it is a measure of trust in the institution – that is, confidence that the Bank will fulfil its role in a satisfactory manner (Hudson, 2006). Trust is especially important for central banks for several reasons. The effectiveness of central banks’ monetary policy measures hinges on anchoring inflation expectations. Furthermore, lack of satisfaction or trust in the central bank affects the Bank’s legitimacy (Baerg and Cross, 2022) and exposes the institution to public or political pressures that can potentially undermine their independence (Goodhart and Lastra, 2018).