Not only has the UK economy behaved differently from its previous experience, it has also behaved differently from other countries. In the United States for example, the fall in employment relative to output has been larger than in the United Kingdom (Chart 8). Weak downwards pressure on inflation from the recession can only go so far in helping understand recent movements in inflation. It cannot explain why inflation has been rising recently. For that we need to look at a series of shocks to relative prices that have put temporary upwards pressure on CPI inflation. These shocks include the change in the VAT rate; changes in oil (and hence petrol) prices and changes in the prices of imports relative to domestic goods and services. 4  BIS Review 91/2010  Because inflation is measured as a 12-month rate, a change in the level of prices will impact on the inflation rate for a year. When the VAT rate was cut in December 2008, that pushed down the price level and the annual inflation rate. Although the precise timing and impact is uncertain, estimates from the ONS suggest it is likely to have reduced inflation by about ¾pp at that time. That effect would have fallen out of the inflation rate a year later. And when the VAT rate was restored in January 2010, the effect of that is likely to have pushed up on the price level and the inflation rate.
M R Chatu Mongol Sonakul: Corporate challenges in the new millennium Speech by M R Chatu Mongol Sonakul, Governor of the Bank of Thailand, at the Annual Business Awards Gala Dinner of the Netherlands-Thai Chamber of Commerce held in Bangkok, 17 May 2001. *  *  *  Your Excellencies, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, First, let me thank Mr. Jan de Kam, President of the Netherlands-Thai Chamber of Commerce for inviting me to give the Keynote Address for this Annual Business Awards Gala Dinner, an occasion that exemplifies the co-operative relationship between the Netherlands and Thailand that dated back through time since 1602. At the time, the Dutch East India Company had already begun trading with the southern part of Siam through their main trading station in Batavia, Indonesia. Several years later, it opened its Ayutthaya trading post and became very influential during the reign of King Prasat-Thong. And indeed, one of the best historical accounts of the Ayutthaya Dynasty was written by a director of the Dutch East India Company in Siam, Mr. Jeremias van Vliet. Now in 2001, our co-operative relationship continues. Many prominent corporations of the Netherlands remain their presence in Thailand, including Philips, Shell (Royal Dutch), Unilever, Heineken, and ABN AMRO, only to name a few. By now, it is generally accepted that the tide of globalization is here to stay.