As I mentioned earlier, several central bank officials overseas have commented recently on conceivable options of monetary easing under the “zero lower bound” of short-term interest rates.
For example, since the end of 2019, retail trade margins for food and grocery retailers increased by about 25 percent, outstripping the growth in average hourly earnings for workers in that sector, which was just under 19 percent. A similar gap exists between margin and wage increases for general merchandise retailers, which were 24 percent and 14 percent, respectively.