Central Bank communications

Poor comprehension of economic policy and low trust in economic institutions can undermine economic stability and lead consumers to make worse personal finance decisions.

Personalisation and making information relevant to individuals can increase engagement, and expressing costs in absolute terms (eg pounds rather than percentages) can improve comprehension.

To understand how economic policy can be better communicated, we tested four different ways of communicating the Bank of England’s Inflation Report summary.

Our Relatable Summary increased comprehension scores by 42% compared to the traditional Monetary Policy Summary and by around 13% compared to the Bank’s Visual Summary.