Rain Newton-Smith

CBI Chief Economist and former head of emerging markets at Oxford Economics

Economist

Rain Newton-Smith is Confederation of British Industry Chief Economist. She leads the team which provides economic analysis and prestigious surveys.

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Rain Newton-Smith's 2025 biography

Rain Newton-Smith’s background

Rain was most recently head of Emerging Markets at Oxford Economics where she managed a large team of economists and was the lead expert on China.

This encompasses monitoring and analysing maturities in China drawing on Oxford Economics’ global model. Rain is frequently involved at a global level in projecting “what if” scenarios. These incorporate international risk scenarios and potential effects of a Chinese banking-sector crisis.

Prior to joining Oxford Economics, Rain worked for nine years at the Bank of England. Her roles included preparing global forecast for the Monetary Policy Committee, evaluating the supply-side determinants of the UK economy, and acting as a research advisor to Richard Lambert, a former member of the MPC. In 2004, Rain started a two-year secondment as an advisor to the UK Executive Director at the International Monetary Fund in Washington DC.

She was deeply involved with governmental projects investigating Middle Eastern financial stability and economic development matters.

Rain’s continuing experience resulted in leading a task force that contributed to the Bank of England’s Financial Stability Report.

In addition to having an MSc in Economics from LSE – concentrating on international trade studied Politics, Rain studied Philosophy and Economics at Oxford University.

In 2010, Rain was chosen as one of Management Today’s 35 Women Under 35. In 2012 the World Economic Forum officially recognized her as Young Global Leader.