more frequently than those on the high street, while being less likely to vary prices by location. conclusion while the fourth industrial revolution has the potential to transform the economy, the challenges it presents for monetary policy makers are in many ways not new. in recent years, the mpc has increasingly focused on structural changes in the economy, including by instituting regular reviews and publishing our assessment of the most important variables, such as the equilibrium unemployment rate. over this period, as unemployment has fallen towards its estimated equilibrium rate and companies have found it harder to recruit and retain staff, pay growth has picked up. across the economy as a whole, growth in average wages excluding bonuses has risen from around 1¾ % a year during 2010 - 15 to around 2½ % in 2016, and wage growth is expected to have picked up a little further to around 2¾ % around the middle of this year. the most recent outturns support that judgement, with whole economy total pay increasing by 2. 9 % in the three months to july and private sector regular pay up 3 % over the same period, and domestically generated inflation at rates consistent with the 2 % inflation target. cavallo, a ( 2018 ), ‘ more amazon effects : online competition and pricing behaviors ’, paper prepared for the 2018 jackson hole symposium. all speeches are available online at www. bankofengland. co. uk / speeches this brings me to a larger point. although current rates of pay growth in the uk are below pre - crisis averages, this largely reflects continued weakness in productivity growth. while that weakness may reflect the early consequences of the fourth industrial revolution, other factors seem more likely to be at play. in the years following the global financial crisis, the aftereffects of that shock and the subsequent euro - area crisis exerted a drag on business investment. more recently, uncertainty around brexit has had an additional dampening effect. as has been the case for some time, developments regarding the united kingdom ’ s withdrawal from the european union are the most significant influences on the economic outlook. and while the impact of the fourth industrial revolution may be felt over the coming decades, some of the brexit effects on supply may be much more immediate. the bank of england is well - prepared for whatever path the economy takes, including a wide range of potential brexit outcomes. we have used our stress test to ensure that the largest uk banks can continue to meet the needs of uk households and businesses even through a

wu xiaoling : promoting the extension of micro credit speech by ms wu xiaoling, deputy governor of the people ’ s bank of china at the videoconference on promoting the extension of micro credit, beijing, 6 july 2004. * * * ladies and gentlemen, deputy secretary - general of the state council mr. you quan has just conveyed the instruction of vice premier mr. huang ju to the conference, representatives from 5 different provinces and cities have introduced their experiences in micro credit extension, and relevant speakers from the ministry of finance, the ministry of labor and social security and the china banking regulatory commission have also specified their plans for promoting the extension of micro credit. as leaders of the state council are much attentive to the making of micro guaranteed credit policy on unemployed laid - off workers, so banking system should seriously study the spirit of vice premier huang ju ’ s instructions and learn from the advanced experiences of the 5 provinces and cities to facilitate the work of micro guaranteed credit for unemployed laid - off workers to make new breakthroughs continually. i will focus my speech on the following issues in terms of banking system ’ s responsibilities. since the micro guaranteed credit business started in 2002, the people ’ s bank of china, the ministry of finance and the ministry of labor and social security have consecutively issued a series of policy documents, which stipulate the target borrowers, loan size, maturity, guarantee and interest subsidy. with joint efforts of all relevant parties, micro credit policy has developed extensively in the whole country and become one of the most important reemployment policies to support laid - off workers to find jobs and start up business on their own. by end - may of 2004, the outstanding amount of micro credit to laid - off workers extended by all financial institutions reached rmb1. 22 billion yuan, among which, rmb590 million yuan was extended in the period from january to may in 2004. employees in the banking system have made great contribution to the development of micro - credit business. we have two pieces of precious experiences drawn from nearly two - year implementation of micro credit policy. first, banking credit support alone cannot satisfy the need of laid - off workers to find jobs and start up business on their own, therefore, reemployment policy should be assisted by necessary job training and employment services by way of combining job training with micro credits to raise the successful reemployment ratio effectively ; second, because laid - off workers have limited ability to start up