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mpc: 10 the annual growth rate of whole-economy unit labour costs had fallen to 1.1% in Q2 from 2.7% in Q1. A40 As was usual for this time of year, there had been relatively little new information on settlements. The Bank's AEI-weighted twelve-month mean settlement had remained unchanged at 3.0% in August. Most of the settlement data in August had related to workers in the public sector. The whole-economy three-month mean settlement had fallen by 0.1 percentage points to 3.2%, reflecting a 0.5 percentage point fall in the public sector mean.

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Prices

A41 The Bank's oil-inclusive commodity price index had risen by 0.5% in August, which, due to base effects, had taken the annual inflation rate down to 15.3% from 16.8% in July. The small monthly increase had mainly reflected rises in the prices of the fuels and metals components of the index more than offsetting a fall in the price of domestic food. The rise of around 6% in the sterling oil price had largely accounted for the increase in fuels prices. The Bank's oil-exclusive commodity price index had fallen by 0.5% in August, mainly reflecting the fall in domestic food prices. This took the annual inflation rate down to 3.6% from 4.1% in the previous month. A42 Manufacturing input prices had risen by 0.6% in August, but the annual inflation rate had eased slightly to 10.7% from 10.8% in July. The monthly rise had mainly reflected rises in the prices of oil, chemicals and metals. These were partially offset, however, by a fall in domestic food prices. Input prices excluding oil (not seasonally adjusted) had fallen by 0.1% in August, but were 3.8% higher than a year earlier. The CIPS manufacturing survey input price index was broadly unchanged at 56.5 in September. Output prices excluding excise duties had fallen by 0.2% in August, largely driven by a fall in petroleum product prices. This had taken the annual inflation rate down to 1.7% from 2.1% in July. The output price balance in the September CBI Industrial Trends survey had fallen to -20, from -15 in the previous month.