It is a great honor to be invited to this meeting hosted by the Yomiuri International Economic Society today. The last time I addressed this meeting, in April 2013, was immediately after the Bank of Japan's introduction of Quantitative and Qualitative Monetary Easing (QQE). Two years have passed since then, and the economic and price situation has improved substantially under QQE. Although the year-on-year rate of increase in the consumer price index (CPI) had declined, due mainly to the effects of the substantial decline in crude oil prices since last summer, and recently has been about 0 percent, the underlying ... (full story)