. as i have discussed in previous speeches, reduced frequency of price adjustments helps moderate prices. and the frequency with which firms adjust prices, which accelerated to less than every five months in early 2022, moved closer to every seven months as of the end of 2023. 2 price adjustment frequency picked up some early this year, along with the temporary firming of inflation, but the general trend has been consistent with ongoing disinflation. 1 / 6 bis - central bankers'speeches an additional basis for price - setting optimism is the fact that longer - run inflation expectations have remained well anchored. research by the richmond fed has found that price - setting decisions by firms are related to their own expectations about the path of overall inflation, so anchored inflation expectations among firms are likely to result in price setting consistent with those lower price expectations. 3 in addition, there may still be room for markups of prices over labor costs to continue falling. while markups are famously difficult to measure, rough, simple estimates of markups of prices over labor costs have fallen back from high levels but still remain above their pre - pandemic trend, especially in the goods sector. 4 a return of markups to this trend could help ongoing progress toward 2 percent inflation. a final factor for optimism about positive price - setting developments is the range of anecdotes from firms themselves. the most recent edition of the fed's beige book suggests firms are increasingly attentive to consumers pushing back against additional price increases and that these businesses expect to increase prices only moderately in the near term. beyond the beige book, i have gleaned from recent earnings reports by publicly traded companies that lower - income consumers are pulling back from their purchasing and that firms are responding by moderating price increases or, in some cases, actually cutting prices. what i have heard in my own conversations with business contacts is that consumers are " trading down " to lower - cost products and that firms are responding with more discounting. and some large retailers have publicly spoken about cutting prices in the face of resistant consumers. these various indicatorsmarkups, price adjustment frequency, inflation expectations, and anecdotes from a range of sources - suggest that, on balance, price - setting behavior is likely to continue to move closer to consistency with the fomc's inflation target. a second reason for my optimism about continued disinflation is slower growth in the costs faced by businesses. among those, nominal wages are a big part of total

achieve carbon neutrality before 2060. ” financial policies should concentrate on this major strategic arrangement and thoroughly implement the new development philosophy. we will actively improve the policy framework, and work closely with policy makers in fiscal, industrial, employment and sci - tech respects, so as to boost the green recovery and development of our economy. second, the sound monetary policy will be pursued in a more flexible, appropriate and targeted manner. monetary policy should balance between ensuring stable growth and preventing risks, avoid both capital strains and overflows in the market, and keep money supply basically in line with the nominal gdp growth which reflects potential output. we will make best efforts to maintain a normal monetary policy for a long time, as well as a normal, upward sloping yield curve, and provide positive incentives for economic entities. this will be generally conducive to the sustainable economic and social development, as well as the global competitiveness of rmb assets. it will help us to make sound use of both overseas and domestic markets and resources. the macro leverage ratio has risen during the special period of pandemic containment this year, but it will be more stable when the gdp growth picks up next year. the monetary policy needs to ensure that the valve on aggregate monetary supply is well controlled and smooth out the fluctuations of macro leverage ratio as appropriate, so as to keep it on a reasonable track in the long run. in recent years, the pbc has resolutely implemented the decisions and arrangements made by the cpc central committee and the state council and actively supported the development of beijing as a national financial management center by launching first in beijing the regulation pilot program of fintech innovation and the pilot reform of rmb and foreign currency account integration, which truly facilitated the building of four centers ( the cultural, political, international exchange, and science and technology innovation centers as beijing ’ s major functions. this year, the pbc has increased central bank lending quotas four times for beijing ’ s rural development and msbs and raised central bank discounts quotas three times, sparing no efforts to meet the demands for pandemic containment and economic recovery of the capital. 3 / 4 bis central bankers'speeches next, the pbc will firmly implement the message of the speech delivered by vice premier liu he, continue to support beijing in developing a national integrated demonstration zone for greater openness in the service sector and a free trade experimental zone, bolster up the construction of the zhongguancun sci - tech innovation