Effective inventory management along the supply chain is vital. Common data standards and technology have together transformed this process. Global supply chain giants come no larger than Wal-Mart Stores Inc. It employs more than 2 million people in 28 countries across nearly 10,000 stores. Its total revenues, at over $ billion annually, are almost four times higher than its nearest competitor. By comparison, one of the world’s largest banks by assets, Citigroup, has revenues of just over $ billion, with just over 250,000 employees. Automation of supply chain management, facilitated by data standardisation, has been central to Wal-Mart’s success. Wal-Mart was an early adopter of common data standards and technology. By 1998, around 85% of Wal-Mart’s retail products were distributed using standardised barcodes and handheld computers. These identified and tracked the location of products in real time as they were distributed to individual stores. This technology has since been extended to individual stores. Manual barcode scanning of shelves and supplies has been largely replaced by contactless tagging of container products using radio frequency GS1 identifiers. In 2010, Wal-Mart started tagging individual items, further improving inventory-tracking. By combining real-time inventory and point-of-sale data, stock-checking and shelf-replenishment has become almost fully-automated. Thinking machine has replaced man throughout the supply chain. This “warehouse-to-shelf” inventory management process has transformed Wal-Mart’s business. Full visibility of the internal supply chain has enabled close to real-time tracking and management of stock across many of its stores. It has allowed genuinely consolidated inventory risk management. The results have been tangible.

Indeed, GDP in the area was flat in the second quarter of this year, although this figure reflects transitory factors whose influence is still difficult to assess. In any event, most analysts predict weak growth in the euro area both this year and next, with highly uneven rates across countries and significant downside risks. Euro area inflation is ultimately moving at figures far removed from the 2% reference which, in the medium term, is the monetary policy objective for the area. With inflation rates  BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  standing roughly at scarcely 0.5% and a macroeconomic scenario marked by sluggish demand, the dangers of a downturn in inflation expectations have become increasingly more patent, increasing the risks to recovery. The European Central Bank has responded to these risks with additional measures that have further accentuated the expansionary nature of euro area monetary policy, thereby placing itself apart from the trajectory initiated by the Federal Reserve and the Bank of England. At its June and September meetings this year, the ECB Governing Council adopted an array of expansionary measures which, once again, combine conventional and other exceptional and unconventional actions. On the conventional front, the ECB once again reduced its official interest rates. The main refinancing operations rate was cut to 0.05%, a level which technically marks the minimum possible bound for this type of interest rate. The marginal credit facility and deposit rates were cut by a similar amount (10 basis points) to stand, respectively, at 0.30% and –0.20%.