and delays. canadian manufacturers saw their suppliers ’ delivery times lengthen to near - record levels by november. on top of those related to the pandemic, we ’ ve seen other disruptions to supply, such as bad weather affecting crop harvests in many parts of the world, including the harvests of our western grain farmers. labour shortages are also contributing to the supply shock. in addition to pre - pandemic shortages of highly skilled workers, we have also faced elevated vacancy rates for jobs in the service sector. it takes time for companies to find workers with the right skills and for workers to find the right jobs. this demand - supply imbalance has resulted in higher inflation. many components of the cpi basket have been subject to supply constraints, most of them tied to goods. the average inflation rate of goods in 2021 has been 4. 4 percent, much higher than that of services at 2. 1 percent. this is in sharp contrast to historical trends, whereby services have typically experienced higher inflation than goods. in the 20 years before the pandemic, goods inflation was only 1. 4 percent on average and inflation for services was 2. 4 percent. we expect supply disruptions to unwind over time. bottlenecks will be resolved, so supply should catch up. at the same time, we anticipate some companies will be motivated to add to their capacity to meet demand over time — by expanding their factories, investing in new technologies and automation, and hiring more workers. others may adapt by modifying their products to get around shortages and reduce high input costs. 2 logistics companies will also add shipping capacity. consumers can also be expected to resume spending a more typical share of their income on services. this was evident recently, with a sharp increase in spending on hard - to - distance services in the third quarter. consumers may also shift away from products that are not available to those that are, which would lower demand for goods in short supply. 2 / 5 bis central bankers'speeches however, this risk that supply disruptions persist longer than we expect figured prominently in our deliberations leading up to yesterday ’ s policy decision. so, i ’ ll turn to how we have been assessing this risk and how we adjust our forecast when a risk materializes. risks to our outlook and adjusting to incoming data given the unprecedented nature of the pandemic and the uniqueness of the recovery, evaluating the risks to our outlook has taken on more importance. central banks must assess where the

f myburgh sc to conduct a review of the status of compliance with sound corporategovernance practices within the five largest banking groups in south africa during 2002. 3 / 7 among adv myburgh ’ s findings were that, generally the banks investigated were committed to adherence to and application of high standards of corporate governance ; the banks on their own initiative reviewed their corporate - governance principles from time to time ; and corporate governance in the banks was generally sound but vigilance was required to ensure continued compliance with the best practice in corporate governance which is evolving in south africa and internationally. myburgh ’ s recommendations were, inter alia, that the board of a bank should consist of no more than about 16 members ; a bank ’ s board should not have more than about four executive directors ; the majority of non - executive directors should be independent directors with immediate effect ; and banks should aim for the majority of their directors to be independent directors within not more than five years. the registrar of banks accepted the recommendations made by adv myburgh and is dedicated to reviewing the commitment to sound corporate governance in the banking sector on an ongoing basis and is currently reviewing corporate governance in the remaining “ non - big five ” banks. it needs to be stressed, however, that the objective of regulatory and supervisory authorities world wide can never be to avoid the failure of financial participants, and, that, in a sound system, there will be failures. instead, the objective is to strive for an optimal balance between, on the one hand, the cost of controls and intervention in order to address market failures and, on the other hand, the anticipated benefits of regulation and supervision. the need for a sound relationship and proper coordination between the fiscal authorities and the regulator can also not be overemphasised. 6. emergence of the “ four - pillar ” policy the four pillar policy relates to having a minimum number of substantial banks ( so called “ pillars ” ) on which the domestic banking industry relies and discourages the merger between any of those four banks. the primary reasons for such a policy relate to the maintenance of minimum levels of competition, in the interests of prudential and systemic stability, in order to avoid the spread of risk and to promote reliance on a broader platform of institutions. currently, australia relies heavily on the “ four - pillar ” policy, which originated in 1990 from its previous “ six - pillar ” policy. new zealand, which effectively has the same major banks as australia, is protected by the australian