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LONDON, Nov 5 (Reuters) - The Bank of England said on Tuesdaythat it had appointed Barclays' chief UK economist,Simon Hayes, to head its economic forecasting team.
Hayes, who worked at the BoE for eight years before joiningBarclays, will be responsible for drafting the central bank'squarterly economic forecasts and will report to BoE chiefeconomist Spencer Dale.
No official start date has been set for Hayes, but thecurrent incumbent, Robert Woods, is due to complete hissecondment at the BoE and return to Britain's finance ministryin the spring of 2014, the BoE said.
The BoE's forecasts have come in for regular criticism fromBritish lawmakers and some economists since the start of thefinancial crisis for not predicting the persistence of inflationand the weakness of growth - though many other forecasts haveshown similar errors.
The BoE is due to publish its next set of quarterlyforecasts on Nov. 13. There is particular interest in itsforecast for unemployment, as the central bank has pledged notto raise interest rates before the jobless rate falls to 7percent - something it forecasts will take at least three years. (Reporting by David Milliken, editing by William Schomberg)
