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mpc: 21 CPI inflation had been unchanged at 1.6% in January. Evidence about pricing pressures along the supply chain was mixed. Manufacturers' annual input price inflation had risen to nearly 10% in January, mainly because of higher oil and other fuel prices, but the CIPS survey had suggested it eased in February. Many of the contacts of the Bank's Agents had suggested that they were currently able to pass these increases in costs to their customers. But manufacturers' annual output price inflation, excluding oil, had stabilised at around 2% over the past few months and the CIPS survey pointed to some easing. Manufacturers' domestic margins appeared to have been widening in the past couple of years, mainly reflecting falling unit labour costs. Measures of capacity utilisation remained high, but had fallen slightly in the business surveys and according to the Bank's Agents. The prices of imported goods, excluding oil and erratics, had risen again in January following the fall in December. These data were not seasonally adjusted and were volatile from month to month but the underlying picture was that import prices had risen over the past three quarters, whereas they had been falling for most of the period from mid-2001 until the beginning of 2004.