It is my great honor to have the opportunity to address you today at the Naigai Josei Chosa Kai. In April last year, the Bank of Japan introduced quantitative and qualitative monetary easing (QQE) to achieve the price stability target of 2 percent at the earliest possible time, with a time horizon of about two years. The last time I addressed you here was only a year ago. At that time, I mentioned that there was a positive turnaround in three areas since the introduction of QQE: in financial conditions, expectations, and economic activity and prices. Since then, QQE has been steadily having its intended effects, and ... (full story)