In this case, a system featuring floors and ceilings appears well designed to allow the Fed to continue to implement monetary policy by controlling the federal funds rate. Appendix 1: Innovations in retail payment systems Important advances have been made in improving the efficiency of retail payment systems. For example, check collection costs may be lowered by the use of check truncation.
Prices change infrequently: the average duration of a consumer price spell – a measure of the time that it takes for retailers to reprice their products – is 13 months [Table 1]. According to surveys, it is 11 months for producers. In the United States, comparable figures indicate durations of less than 7 months and slightly more than 8 months respectively.