Financial transactions, which as a rule involve substantial amounts and are time-critical, are of great significance for the real economy. This is why it is so important to have the settlement of large-value payments as a reliable foundation. To avoid risks with regard to payments in this systemically important segment, there needs to be a risk-free payment instrument. Today, time-critical, large-value payments in a currency area are therefore usually settled in central bank money and via central banks’ payment systems, referred to as real-time gross settlement systems or RTGS for short. Switzerland’s RTGS system is Swiss Interbank Clearing (SIC). An RTGS system ensures that payments are made when – and only when – there is sufficient money on the account of the paying bank. If there are adequate funds to cover the payments, they are settled irrevocably and in real time. This assures the safety of the settlement process. Using central bank money also eliminates the risk of default by the settlement institution. Central banks can provide additional liquidity if required at any time, and also serve as the lender of last resort. In this way, they ensure that there is a reliable foundation for the FMI. This has proved effective to date, and also stood up well during the financial crisis. Could DLT also be used in RTGS systems in the future, i.e. as part of the reliable foundation? We see a number of questions that are still to be resolved here.
Food price inflation edged higher to 14.1 per cent, as the past surge in the cost of energy and of other inputs for food production is still feeding through to consumer prices. Price pressures remain strong, partly because high energy costs are spreading throughout the economy. Inflation excluding energy and food remained at 5.2 per cent in January, with inflation for non-energy industrial goods rising to 6.9 per cent and  2/4  BIS - Central bankers' speeches  services inflation declining to 4.2 per cent. Other indicators of underlying inflation are also still high. Government measures to compensate households for high energy prices will dampen inflation in 2023 but are expected to raise inflation once they expire. At the same time, the scale of some of these measures depends on the evolution of energy prices and their expected contribution to inflation is particularly uncertain. Although supply bottlenecks are gradually easing, their delayed effects are still pushing up goods price inflation. The same holds true for the lifting of pandemic-related restrictions: while weakening, the effect of pent-up demand is still driving up prices, especially in the services sector. Wages are growing faster, supported by robust labour markets, with some catch-up to high inflation becoming the main theme in wage negotiations. At the same time, recent data on wage dynamics have been in line with the December Eurosystem staff projections. Most measures of longer-term inflation expectations currently stand at around two per cent, but these warrant continued monitoring.