last year offset the pressure from rising compensation gains on labor costs per unit of output. and non - labor costs, which are roughly a quarter of total consolidated costs of the nonfinancial corporate sector, were little changed in 1996. owing in part to this subdued behavior of unit costs, profits and rates of return on capital have risen to high levels. as a consequence, a substantial number of businesses apparently believe that, were they to raise prices to boost profits further, competitors with already ample profit margins would not follow suit ; instead, they would use the occasion to capture a greater market share. this interplay is doubtless a significant factor in the evident loss of pricing power in american business. intensifying global competition may also be limiting the ability of domestic firms to hike prices as well as wages. competitive pressures here and abroad should continue to act as a restraint on inflation in the months ahead. in addition, crude oil prices have largely retraced last year ’ s run - up, and, with the worldwide supply of oil having moved up relative to demand, futures markets project stable prices over the near term. food prices should also rise less rapidly than they did in 1996 as some of last year ’ s supply limitations ease. nonetheless, the trends in the core cpi and in broader price measures are likely to come under pressure from a continued tight labor market, whose influence on costs will be augmented by the scheduled increase in the minimum wage later in the year. and, with considerable health - care savings already having been realized, larger increases in fringe benefits could put upward pressure on overall compensation. moreover, although non - oil import prices should remain subdued in 1997 as the sharp rise in the dollar over the past year - and - a - half continues to feed through to domestic prices, their damping effects on u. s. inflation probably will not be as great as in 1996. the lagged effects of the increase in the exchange value of the dollar will also likely restrain real u. s. net exports this year. in addition, declines in real federal government purchases should exert a modest degree of restraint on overall demand, and residential construction will probably not repeat the gains of 1996. on the other hand, financial conditions overall remain supportive to the real economy, and creditworthy borrowers are finding funding to be readily available from intermediaries and in the securities markets. moreover, we do not see evidence of widespread imbalances either in business inventories or in stocks of capital equipment and consumer

denis beau : financial supervisory and coordination - new issues and challenges regulatory policy contribution to the panel discussion by mr denis beau, first deputy governor of the bank of france, at the salzburg global finance forum, 22 june 2021. * * * regulatory policy and supervisory coordination has always been fraught with challenges. i remember panel discussions with market participants about this very topic at the bis twenty years ago. no surprise for me that it is still a topic today, because there is a deeply rooted reason for it : the inevitable tension between market forces on the one hand, which push for a borderless financial system in many of its layers, despite step backwards, as we have seen since the global financial crisis, and on the other hand the jurisdictions in which regulators and supervisors operate, are accountable and must discharge their obligations, which at best are regional for some and most often are national. this observation does not mean that we have not made progress in addressing this tension over the last decades. nevertheless, i would differentiate between coordination issues to manage large - scale crisis and to prevent those crisis. regarding the former, i think it is fair to say that the covid - 19 pandemic acted as a test of the resilience of our global coordination framework, which has improved with a strong g20 dimension after the gfc. international organizations, among which the financial stability board, and standard setting bodies have played a very important role in gathering and disseminating information, as well as ensuring adequate coordination among major public authorities. i would also point out that monetary policy has not been the only tool we have used to increase resilience and defuse the shock. different authorities have worked hand in hand, under a lot of time pressure, including financial regulators and supervisors, to deliver a very comprehensive and largely consistent set of measures to maintain the core functions of the financial system in these unprecedented events. comprehensiveness and consistency have been key elements in our collective ability to foster resilience. so the test regarding coordination in crisis time has been passed rather well so far. however, it ’ s not over yet and good coordination should be maintained for the exit phase of support measures, generally speaking. in the field of financial regulation and supervision, there were variations in approaches, see for instance the leverage ratio for credit institutions, which was okay for the duration of the crisis, but led to divergence in the implementation of standards that should not last. getting out of the crisis and unwinding support measures will require further coordination