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mpc: 19 Evidence about price pressures along the supply chain was mixed. Input and output prices fell in December, largely because of the fall in the price of oil from its peak. The prices of imported goods, excluding oil and erratics, fell by 1.5% on the month in December. However, quarterly rates of increase in input and output prices remained high, import prices had risen over the past three quarters and sterling oil prices were still well above their levels a year ago. In January, the CBI manufacturers' output price expectations balance rose sharply to its highest level for ten years, while the corresponding BCC balance was only slightly below its record December level. Many of the contacts of the Bank's Agents had suggested that firms currently felt able to pass on much of their cost increases; pressures on margins appeared to have lessened.