Looking ahead, on the basis of current futures prices for oil, annual rates of headline inflation are likely to temporarily decline towards the turn of the year, mainly reflecting base effects in energy prices. At the same time, measures of underlying inflation have ticked up moderately since early 2017, but have yet to show more convincing signs of a sustained upward trend.
Lending to creditworthy borrowers A key objective of the stress assessments and our efforts with smaller institutions has been to restore confidence in the stability of our banking system, confidence that was lacking in early 2009.