the wto and with internationally - agreed standards agreed within the imf. it incorporates the minimum standards of banking supervision agreed ( and now subject to revision ) under the basel accord. it incorporates, too, those measures that have so far been agreed at the regional, european, level relating to a wider range of financial services activity in the context of progress towards the single financial market. whether or not these initiatives lead over time towards greater " convergence " of our financial systems in some structural sense – as they may – taken together with national deregulation they should at least contribute to greater competition, including cross - border competition, and help to improve the effectiveness of our financial systems in terms of the key criterion which i suggested earlier in my remarks. that is particularly true, at least potentially, of the steps proposed to advance the european single financial market, as set out in the commission's financial services action plan, because of its broad scope. but progress has so far been painfully slow. in that context i welcome the recent emphasis on closer and more active co - operation between financial regulators within europe, regardless of national regulatory structures. and i particularly welcome the proposals put forward by alexandre lamfalussy and his " wise men " for accelerating progress on measures that would encourage greater efficiency in europe's securities markets. but there is clearly a great deal more that we can do in this whole area. such changes in national financial services regulation, and related international and regional actions, taken together with increasing awareness in many parts of the world of the potential advantages of opening national financial markets to international competition, provide an encouraging environment for a second main driver of change in our financial systems – globalisation. it is a process we are particularly conscious of in london where major financial institutions from all over the world, including, of course, from elsewhere in europe, have long been predominant players, especially in international wholesale market activity. but international ownership of banks ( including newly privatised banks ) and other financial institutions has increasingly become a common characteristic of financial systems in a wide range of other countries. i will not comment further on globalisation, which is certainly very familiar to you, except perhaps to say that i have often been teased by people who talk about the wimbledonisation of the city of london – meaning that we provide the tournament venue but the prizes are mostly carried off by competitors from overseas. i think that many of those people now increasingly understand that it is activity rather than nationality of ownership which creates a competitive market place

symmetrical inflation target. crucial to the success of such a policy is the ability to anchor inflation expectations on the target. for this to be the case, the target must be clear and well understood. from may 1997 the target was 2½ % for rpix inflation. but in december the chancellor gave the monetary policy committee a new target for inflation. it is 2 % as measured by the consumer prices index or cpi, formerly known as the harmonised index of consumer prices. what is this new inflation measure, and how will it affect monetary policy? on the rpix measure, inflation was at or above target for the whole of last year. in contrast, the cpi measure of inflation was below 2 % throughout the same period. indeed, cpi inflation has been below 2 % for all bar three months since may 1997, and it is almost six years since it was last above 2 %. how can it be possible for inflation to move from above to below target - just like that? to answer that question, we need to examine how inflation is calculated. inflation is measured as the increase in the price of a particular basket of goods and services over the previous twelve months. so there are as many measures of inflation as there are baskets. since no two people in this room spend their income on exactly the same items, in principle each of you could construct your own measure of inflation. the office for national statistics calculates an average inflation measure by weighting together the inflation rates of over 650 different goods and services, using as weights the estimated expenditure on each item for a representative household. but where unpublished writings of j. m. keynes, copyright of the provost and scholars of king ’ s college, cambridge to whom i am grateful for permission to publish this extract. a reference to the letter appeared in skidelsky, r. john maynard keynes volume 1 : hopes betrayed, 1883 - 1920, macmillan, london, 1983, page 280. the official attendance on 13 september was 38, 575 ; the villa scorer was the incomparable clem stephenson, who may have lacked pace but whose passes were, according to contemporary observers, “ as sweet as stolen kisses ” ; and the ‘ most expensive ’ right winger for blackburn rovers was john “ jocky ” simpson who cost blackburn a record fee of £1, 850 when he was transferred from falkirk in 1911. do those prices come from? each month - on “ index day ” ( either the second or third tuesday of the month ) - around