George, Eddie (1938- )

British banker and economist, and governor of the Bank of England since 1993. A hard-line advocate of maintaining low inflation, he has been forthright in his dealings and differences over economic policy with chancellors of the Exchequer, notably Kenneth Clarke of the Conservative Party in the mid-1990s. His pressure for greater independence for the Bank of England was rewarded in parliamentary legislation under a Labour Government in 1998, which strengthened the bank's governance and accountability, and formalized its responsibility for the setting of interest rates and conduct of monetary policy.

George has drawn some criticism during his career for events such as the collapse of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International in 1991, while he was deputy governor. An official inquiry into the affair identified failures in the Bank of England's systems of supervision and communication. However, he restored his reputation by his technical handling of the UK's turbulent withdrawal, amounting to a forced devaluation of sterling, from the European exchange rate mechanism in September 1992. On the contentious issue of possible UK entry into the euro zone (European single currency), George indicated in late 2000 that he opposed UK membership at its launch on 1 January 1999, or in the intervening period to 2001, because of the weakness of the euro.

Born in Carshalton, South London, George attended Dulwich College before graduating in economics at Emmanuel College, Cambridge University, in 1962. He joined the Bank of England on leaving Cambridge, working initially on Eastern European affairs. Having been seconded to the Bank for International Settlements (1966-69) to work as an economist, he then worked for the International Monetary Fund (1972-74) on monetary reform, before returning to the Bank of England as an adviser in the overseas department on external and international monetary questions.

His subsequent bank career has seen his progression to deputy chief cashier (1977-80), assistant director in charge of the gilt-edged division (1980-82), executive director with responsibility for monetary policy, market operations and market supervision (from 1982), and deputy governor from 1990 until his appointment to the top post in January 1993. His second five-year term as governor expires in 2003.

Knighted in 2000, he is only the third serving governor in the past 100 years to be so honoured.