Today, financial firms with around $ trillion assets under management have committed to harmonised reporting using the Task-Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) template.16 This has encouraged wider scrutiny of, and actions to mitigate, the risks to companies’ profits and balance sheets posed by climate change. Pay gap disclosure could have a similarly profound behavioural effect on companies. Fourth, there is also a strong case for improving the sets of data available publicly to monitor progress towards equality of pay and opportunity in the workplace. One example of useful additional data would be longitudinal data tracking individuals from school into employment, perhaps using administrative data or new surveys. This would help to understand the key determinants, and obstacles, to career and pay progression. Fifth and finally, published pay gap data are imperfect and can sometimes give a misleading impression of diversity patterns. We have demonstrated how raw pay gap data can sometimes give rise to puzzles. We 15  https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/business-population-estimates-2019/business-population-estimates-for-the-uk-andregions-2019-statistical-release-html 16 TCFD (2019). 34  All speeches are available online at www.bankofengland.co.uk/speeches  34  have also demonstrated, however, that a careful consideration of various compositional factors can resolve these puzzles and provide a clearer picture of underlying patterns. There is no reason why companies could not use these techniques when interpreting their own results.
Taking into account the favorable developments in the credit markets and the moderate recovery in economic activity in the last quarter of 2009, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) slowed the pace of rate cuts, and finally decided to keep rates unchanged at the last two meetings. However, it was also noted that lingering problems across the global economy were still a concern and that uncertainties regarding the strength and durability of the recovery remain. Considering these factors, the MPC reiterated that it would be necessary to keep policy rates at low levels for a long period of time. At its January meeting, the MPC indicated that tax adjustments and base effects would cause inflation to rise significantly in the first two months of 2010 and afterwards remain above the target for some time. Noting that the underlying trend implied by core inflation indicators would remain at levels consistent with medium-term targets, the Committee emphasized that, given the levels of resource utilization, the state of labor markets, and global economic conditions, general pricing behavior would not be affected adversely by the temporary rise in inflation, and therefore, inflation would display a declining trend once the transitory factors taper off. Market yields have been broadly shaped by the monetary policy stance during the last quarter of 2009. This is particularly important as it demonstrates the increased effectiveness of monetary policy. Market interest rates slightly increased in October with rising perceptions that the policy rate cut cycle is coming to an end.