require a greater reliance by our trading partners on their own domestic spending as a source of growth. consumer price inflation has been elevated so far this year, due in large part to increases in energy prices. core inflation readings - - that is, measures excluding the prices of food and energy - - have also been higher in recent months. while monthly inflation data are volatile, core inflation measured over the past three to six months has reached a level that, if sustained, would be at or above the upper end of the range that many economists, including myself, would consider consistent with price stability and the promotion of maximum long - run growth. for example, at annual rates, core inflation as measured by the consumer price index excluding food and energy prices was 3. 2 percent over the past three months and 2. 8 percent over the past six months. for core inflation based on the price index for personal consumption expenditures, the corresponding three - month and six - month figures are 3. 0 percent and 2. 3 percent. these are unwelcome developments. although the rate of pass - through from the higher prices of energy and other commodities to core consumer price inflation appears to have remained relatively low, the cumulative increases in energy and commodity prices have been large enough that they could account for some of the recent pickup in core inflation. despite recent increases in spot oil prices, futures markets imply that oil prices are not expected to continue rising. the realization of that outcome would reduce one source of upward pressure on inflation. however, the volatility of these and other commodity prices is such that possible future increases in these prices remain a risk to the inflation outlook. subdued growth in most broad measures of nominal labor compensation and the ongoing expansion of labor productivity have held down the rise in unit labor costs, the largest component of business costs. anecdotal reports suggest, however, that the labor market is tight in some industries and occupations and that employers are having difficulty attracting certain types of skilled workers. finally, some survey - based measures of longer - term inflation expectations have edged up, on net, in recent months, as has the compensation for inflation and inflation risk implied by yields on nominal and inflation - indexed government debt. as yet, these expectations measures have remained within the ranges in which they have fluctuated in recent years, but these developments bear watching. with the economy now evidently in a period of transition, monetary policy must be conducted with great care and with close attention to the evolution of the economic outlook as implied

range of firms across the payments industry, as well as their customers. this goes much wider than the current membership : we need to think about prospective participants too and to understand the evolving needs of end - users. to bring a range of perspectives and diversity of thought to our approach, the rtgs / chaps board7 has four independent members with commercial and international experience and is attended by a representative from the national cyber security centre. https : / / www. bankofengland. co. uk / payment - and - settlement all speeches are available online at www. bankofengland. co. uk / news / speeches we have a number of channels to facilitate engagement, including the rtgs renewal external advisory body, the standards advisory panel and the chaps strategic advisory forum. 8 membership spans current chaps direct and indirect participants and not just the traditional large banks, but also new players, trade bodies, regulators, various uk government departments, software vendors and end users such as corporates. we work closely with the prudential regulation authority, financial conduct authority and payment systems regulator on a range of topics. and the bank also engages extensively with pay. uk, who are delivering change across the retail payment schemes through their new payments architecture9 programme. understanding the needs and challenges of a diverse set of firms and their customers informs our decision making. it means we are better able to reflect the requirements of the firms that use the services we provide and ultimately the people of the uk. and we can balance the potentially competing needs of different stakeholders on an informed basis rather than relying only on the views of longstanding contacts. a key piece of engagement took place in summer 2018 when we ran a joint consultation10 with pay. uk and the payments systems regulator on the implementation of iso 20022. over 70 organisations replied and their responses11 helped refine our approach, for example on legal entity identifiers ( leis ). responses showed widespread support for making leis mandatory for transactions between financial institutions in chaps. many respondents also saw the benefits of mandating leis for a wider range of payments but flagged the need for wider adoption of leis before these benefits could be fully reaped. the bank has committed to working with key stakeholders including hm government and the global lei foundation ( gleif ), as well as providing further education about the wider economic value of the lei. this will lay the foundations to make leis mandatory for a much wider set of chaps payments in