Professor Roger Bootle was Group Chief Economist HSBC Holdings, the parent organisation for both the Hongkong Shanghai Bank and the Midland Bank. He is a well known and highly respected analyst of the financial markets - investment institutions regularly vote him and his team top of their section of the Extel Survey.

He is also a prominent and controversial economic forecaster and commentator, well-known not only to professionals but also to the general public through his frequent television and radio appearances and articles in the press.

Roger Bootle started to achieve a substantial following in the UK investment community in the late 1980s when, in contrast to the prevailing opinion, he correctly forecast that interest rates would have to rise to 15%. Indeed, his views and forecasts have frequently stood out against the crowd for their originality, insight and forthrightness. He correctly forecast the collapse in the UK housing market and has long propounded the once radical view that housing should be viewed not as an investment, but as somewhere to live.

Roger Bootle achieved notoriety for forecasting in 1990 that the UK was about to experience a decade of very low inflation when inflation at the time was over 10%. In 1992 he stood almost alone in saying that Britain's ejection from the ERM would not alter this picture of low inflation, and that interest rates would fall to 5%. In November 1993, he stunned listeners to the BBC's radio programme The World at One (and the following day's national press) by saying on air: "Inflation is effectively dead".

In recent years his reputation has spread beyond the UK and is now international. He correctly forecast the world boom in bond markets in 1993 and the effective collapse of the ERM in August of that year. He is well-known for his enthusiasm for the dynamic economies of Asia and his belief that they will have a massive and largely beneficial effect on the economies of the West. In 1993 he forecast that the yen would rise well beyond 100 to the dollar. Within Europe, he is known for being a strong supporter of an open European trading system.

Roger Bootle is a much sought after speaker at conferences and investment gatherings all over the world. He is a frequent visitor to the leading European centres, North America, East Asia and the Middle East. He is the author of two books and many articles. His last book, The Death of Inflation was a global bestseller.

Roger Bootle is continuing other activities such as his Visiting Professorship at Manchester Business School, Economic Advisor to Deloitte & Touche, Specialist Adviser to the House of Commons Treasury Select Committee, as well as his weekly column in The Times.