‘Hurricane Brexit’ – or why economists should admit they can’t always get it right

The Bank of England’s chief economist recently said his profession was “to some degree in crisis” over its failure to predict the 2008 financial crash and – to a lesser extent – the apparent resilience of the UK economy after the Brexit vote. Dimitri Zenghelis looks at how economic forecasting works and explains that its models are not infallible. Economists should be honest about the limitations of their predictions.