As both a user and a partner, we can affirm that the quality of the Office’s statistical output has increased immensely over the transformation period. Examples include the publication of national accounts according to international standards and the compilation of data on the government debt and deficit. The Czech National Bank focuses mainly on monetary and banking statistics and balance of payments statistics. The harmonisation of the monetary statistics with European standards was recently completed in both main components balance sheet statistics and interest rate statistics. Monetary and credit aggregates and interest rates are now methodologically comparable with the data of other EU Member States. Speaking of harmonisation, I must mention the calculation of another convergence criterion - long-term interest rates. This calculation is based on long-term government bond yields on the secondary market. The Czech National Bank thus provides the statistical foundation for assessing this criterion. International standards such as the IMF’s 5th Balance of Payments Manual are also observed when compiling the balance of payments. The balance of payments is now published every month and the required items are also broken down geographically. In recent years, much attention has been devoted to the category of foreign direct investment, where the data are published in very detailed geographical and sectoral breakdowns. The balance of payments is perhaps the best example of co-operation between the Czech Statistical Office and the Czech National Bank.
Bank of England  Page 5  One of the most striking global trends over the past half century has been an overall decline in the level of risk-free interest rates – risk-free in the sense that they are returns on lending that carries a negligible risk that payment obligations will not be met by the borrower. Chart 1 shows how, when we look at this over a longer period of time, ten-year UK nominal rates have fallen compared to where they were in the 1980s. Both the very low levels of interest rates we have seen in the years leading up to the Covid pandemic, and their recent rise from those levels, must be seen against the backdrop of that downward trend. Chart 1: The UK ten-year nominal rate has fallen over recent decades Ten-year zero coupon yield (spot interest rate) from UK gilts (a) Per cent 15  15  10  10  5  5  0  0  -5 1985  -5 1990  1995  2000  2005  2010  2015  2020  (a) Sources: Bloomberg Finance L.P, Tradeweb and Bank calculations. A good part of this decline can be explained by lower inflation itself. It reflects the success of inflation targeting in delivering low and stable inflation over long periods of time. Under inflation targeting, monetary policy makers act decisively to return inflation to target whenever shocks cause prices to rise or fall by too much.