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mpc: 21 Supply-chain costs and prices continued to increase. Manufacturers' input prices had risen again in October, although excluding oil, input price inflation was steady. Manufacturers' output prices had continued to accelerate, both including and excluding petroleum products. The headline output price inflation measure was now at its highest since December 1995, with estimates suggesting that manufacturers' margins on domestic sales were expanding. Prices of imported manufactures, which had been falling since 2000, had risen since the beginning of the year. It was difficult to get a clear picture of how far further integration and productivity improvements in the wholesale and retail distribution sectors were influencing margins and profitability in those sectors. The latest quarterly data on retail goods prices, together with estimates of weighted costs in the retail distribution sector, suggested a continuing fall in margins through 2003 and 2004, but these data were subject to considerable uncertainty.