purpose of the intervention or unnecessarily obstruct market innovation. in some instances this approach, which i suppose might be described as market - sensitive, involved encouraging the market itself to address the particular issue in question as a preferable alternative to official action. i think of the takeover panel, for example, or the work of people like adrian cadbury - under the auspices of the stock exchange - in developing corporate governance standards, or of the professional organisations which set and police accountancy rules. a similar approach was followed in relation to many commercial banking issues - through approved codes of conduct in relation to their dealings with customers accompanied by an ombudsman scheme. we were in this country sensitive to the need to distinguish between different aspects of financial market activity - very obviously in the case of the distinction between wholesale and retail activity - in trying to find the most appropriate ways of reflecting legitimate public concerns. where there has been official intervention, it has, again by now well - established tradition, sought to avoid discrimination - whether between different types of financial institution or in the form of protective nationalism in favour of british - owned businesses, provided everyone undertaking a particular activity played by the same rules. that approach has not necessarily always been popular, i have to say, with some of those who might have benefited from such discrimination! but it is certainly one of the reasons for london's attraction as an international financial centre including its attraction to so many financial companies from elsewhere in europe. and that international presence in turn contributes enormously to the efficiency of the london market - and indeed the european market of which we are very much a part. chairman, i could go on reflecting on our own experience of all this - but i'm conscious that the weekend beckons - and the relevant question is how it all relates to the development of the single financial market across europe. the potential benefits of integration i take for granted. the continuing debate is about how - given that we all start from different positions and with different traditions and with different public policy priorities, we get from here to there. it may well be that continuous public pressure for higher and higher standards in financial markets everywhere are leading to greater official intervention any way. but integration was itself always bound to involve more intervention as the eu member states moved towards some degree of harmonisation of standards, requiring legal agreement at the european level and then reflected in national legislation. and a great deal of progress has, of course, already been made in that direction through

illustrates an important point. even as food price inflation is coming down, the level of food prices is still high. consumer food prices today are close to 30 per cent higher than at the start of the pandemic. the high cost of food continues be a major challenge for many people across the country, especially those on lower incomes. the prices consumers end up paying in local markets, shops and supermarkets are of course also affected by domestic costs added in the final stages of the supply chain – such as energy, transport and labour – as well as prices at the wholesale level. energy costs have been a major factor throughout the food supply chain, however. this is illustrated in chart 11. the chart shows an estimate of the indirect effect on consumer prices through the cost of doing business over the past four years. it is derived from information on the use of energy at various stages of the supply chain and effectively tracks how energy costs for businesses have contributed to the prices paid by consumers for final consumer goods and services. these indirect effects are significant, especially for food. the blue line shows that, over last winter, more than 1. 5 percentage points of food price inflation can be attributed to higher energy costs in the food supply chain. this is significantly more than in other sectors of the economy, as illustrated by the indirect effects on core goods ( in orange ) and services ( in purple ). ontr t on o nd re t energ e e ts to n lat on and bank al lat ons so what should we expect from here? bank of england the blue line in chart 12 shows annual food price inflation. while it is still high, it has fallen markedly since its peak in march. and we expect it to continue to fall over the coming months ( shaded area ) given easing cost pressures throughout the food supply chain. ann al and ann al sed monthl and bank al ood and non al ohol everages n lat on lat ons but even as we expect food inflation to fall, there are clearly risks as we look ahead to the months and years ahead. food inflation can be volatile in the best of days. and climate change is affecting whether patterns, increasing the risk of poor harvests. new, hardier crops may become an important source of nutrients globally, but the development of such variants may be years away. and global economic fragmentation can increase the risk of spikes in prices when supply fails and countries prioritise local markets. 15 the