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mpc: 4 from 5.6% in November. PNFCs had raised a monthly average of £5.2 billion of total external finance in Q4 compared with an average of £4.4 billion in the preceding six months. A14 Data on the breakdown of sterling lending by all banks had shown that the twelve-month growth rate of borrowing had risen in 2002 Q4 for all the main categories of corporates. A15 The annual growth rate of M4 deposits of other financial corporations (OFCs) had risen sharply, to 4.9%, in December, up from 0.6% in November. The twelve-month growth rate of OFCs' M4 borrowing (excluding the effects of securitisations) had fallen to 4.6% in December, compared with 5.6% in November. A16 The FTSE All-Share index had fallen by 6.2% since the Committee's previous meeting, and all sector indices had fallen. Uncertainty in the FTSE 100, as measured by the volatility implied by options prices, had risen. The number of UK profit warnings in January had been slightly higher than in January 2002. A17 Short-term nominal forward rates had fallen and suggested that the markets saw some possibility of a reduction in official rates by the summer. The skew on six-month short sterling interest rates, an indicator of perceptions of the balance of risk, had become slightly negative since the Committee's previous meeting. But the standard deviation of interest rate expectations, a measure of uncertainty, had fallen slightly over the month. Over longer maturities, nominal forward rates had also fallen, by 14 basis points at ten years and by about 20 basis points at twenty years. Real forward rates derived from index-linked gilts had fallen over the month, particularly at shorter maturities. Real spot rates had fallen internationally and were at low levels. A18 Since the Committee's previous meeting, inflation expectations inferred from the gilts market had risen at shorter horizons, by about 20 basis points at two years, to 2.2%. Mean inflation expectations in HM Treasury's survey for 2003 Q4 had risen to 2.4% in January, from 2.3% in December. In the Consensus Economics survey, expected inflation for 2003 as a whole had also risen, to 2.5%. But both surveys put expectations for 2004 slightly below target.