A TEAM of Tyneside sixth-formers who pitched their theory of how to sort out the economy to the Bank of England have turned their attention to the CBI.

The four economics students from Dame Allan’s School in Newcastle presented to the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) after making it the finals of a national competition.

They formed a shadow MPC and analysed financial data to come up with their own strategy for meeting the Government’s inflation target of 2% in the Target 2.0 competition, which was held by The Bank of England (BoE) and The Times.

But although they were beaten to the top prize their financial acumen is still winning them admirers and they met Lucy Armstrong, of the CBI SME council.

One of their proposals was a targeted lending initiative for small and medium- sized businesses which they were particularly anxious to explore with Lucy Armstrong, chief executive of Gateshead- based consultancy The Alchemists works with fast-growing family and entrepreneurial businesses.

She said: “I was very impressed with the quality of their analysis and the manner in which they were able to explain and justify complex economic solutions. I would like them to give their presentation to my colleagues in the CBI. The clarity and depth of their argument was outstanding.”

The competition began in September with nearly 300 teams across the UK.

Dame Allan’s head of economics Colin McFall said: “The pupils all have offers to study economics at university and this experience will stand them in very good stead.”