DUP Accuses BoE Governor Of 'Extremely Misleading' Information

The DUP have criticised the Governor of the Bank of England (BoE) over so-called "extremely misleading" comments about the effects of Brexit.

Sammy Wilson MP for East Antrim said the Governor's claims that the decision to leave the UK "has left every household £900 worse off", were "yet another example of the desperation of the pro-EU establishment to bring influence to bear and keep us tied to the EU".

Mr Wilson said: "The fact that Mark Carney had the audacity to make any comment on this issue is in itself amazing. This is the man who told us that immediately after a decision to leave the EU, the United Kingdom would go into a recession. In fact the economy grew last year by 1.8%.

"The Bank of England also predicted that unemployment would stay above 5% in fact it has fallen to 4.2%, the lowest level in forty five years and every region has been affected. We were told that interest rates would soar but they have remained at near zero percent. On top of that exports are soaring. That's good for jobs especially in export orientated regions like Northern Ireland. The stock market has topped the highest level ever which is good for people with money invested in pension schemes. Mystic Meg would probably be a more reliable predictor of our economic future than the flawed models and the politically motivated predictions of the Bank of England.

"As to this figure of every household being £900 worse off, it is little more than statistical skulduggery. It was arrived at by comparing actual growth with the rate of growth predicted by the Bank of England. No one including the Bank of England knows whether its predicted figure of 2.8% would ever have materialised. Indeed, given how inaccurate its previous predictions were it is most unlikely that the 2.8% prediction is anything other than a growth rate picked out of the air. That being the case, the £900 figure is speculative at best and downright misleading at worst.

"The fact that it is being used by Europhiles to argue that we stay in the EU shows that it is more a political tool than a realistic economic assessment.

"I always predicted that the pro EU political establishment, the chattering classes in the pro EU media, the various industrial, environmental, community groups who are financially and in terms of influence in hock to the EU would continue their project fear. However they could at least use figures which are less blatantly transparent than this nonsense which a decent A-level economics student would see through."

(MH/LM)