It is a great honor to have this opportunity to address such a distinguished gathering of business leaders in Japan today. There is only one week left this year. As for Japan's economy this year, it has been following a recovery path as expected, due partly to the effects of both monetary and fiscal polic ies (Chart 1). During the three quarters after the turn of the year, real GDP registered an average annualized growth rate of 3 percent on a quarter-on-quarter basis, which was substantially above the potential growth rate that is estimated to be around 0.5 percent. Business sentiment in the Tankan survey ... (full story)