Two weeks after each meeting, the Bank publishes minutes, which make it clear whether there was a lack of consensus in the Committee. Publication of the minutes is required by law. An account of the implementation of monetary policy is provided in the Annual Report. All committee members are free to express their personal views on economic issues and monetary policy. In Sweden, too, interest rate decisions are made by a board of experts – the Executive Board. The members work full time, and participate in the daily operations of the central bank. An inflation report expressing the Executive Board’s collective view of the inflation outlook is published four times a year. As in the UK, special emphasis is placed on the individual responsibility of the Executive Board members. The individual members’ voting and assessments are disclosed. Any lack of consensus regarding the inflation outlook and setting of interest rates emerges from the minutes that are published from two to four weeks after each monetary policy meeting. Grounds are given for decisions on interest rates, but no press conference is held immediately after monetary policy meetings. The Executive Board does not directly announce its stance regarding interest rate movements in the period ahead, but this is implicit from the uncertainty associated with the projection, which Sweden’s Riksbank also illustrates by means of a fan surrounding the inflation projection. The Executive Board reports twice a year to the Swedish parliament, the Riksdagen.
Churchill himself said that “a nation that forgets its past has no future.” Our banknotes are testaments to the outstanding achievements of the nation’s greatest individuals; they are repositories of the United Kingdom’s collective memory. That contribution will continue with the new £ which brings together the future, in the form of polymer and the most advanced security features yet, and Britain’s glorious history, in the achievements of Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill. BIS central bankers’ speeches  3