HM Treasury News Release                            
99/97                                        4 August 1997
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              TREASURY APPOINTS POLICY EXPERTS 


The Treasury has today announced the appointment of Chris
Wales and Paul Gregg as policy experts to work alongside the
Treasury teams dealing with, respectively, taxation and
employment. They are the first appointments to the Council of
Economic Advisers. The Council's terms of reference are:

    "To advise the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the design
and implementation of policies for the achievement of the
Government's economic objectives."

The creation of the Council of Economic Advisers follows the
disbandment of the Panel of Independent Forecasters
established under the previous Government. 


NOTES TO EDITORS

The Council of Economic Advisers is made up of individual
policy experts who will bring their specialist experience to
work alongside individual Treasury teams focussing on the
Government's key policy priorities. 

Chris Wales moves from his position as tax partner in Arthur
Andersen where he has worked in both the UK and Sweden. He has
substantial experience of UK and international tax issues.  
His work has included projects involving financing structures
and products, securitisation, cross-border leasing,
acquisition finance and related structures, and treasury
management.

He moved to Sweden in 1991, where he became head of the firm's
international tax practice there. In 1995 he returned full-time 
to London where he had a portfolio mainly comprising large 
corporate and financial sector clients, including US and
European-based multinationals. 

In addition to his work at the Treasury, Paul Gregg will
continue to work part-time in his current position as Senior
Research Associate at the Centre for Economic Performance at
the London School of Economics. Before joining the LSE in
1995, he worked at the National Institute of Economic and
Social Research from 1987-1994.   

His current work at the LSE includes research into the
dynamics of the UK labour market.