Goushi Kataoka: Economic activity, prices, and monetary policy in Japan

Speech (via webcast) by Mr Goushi Kataoka, Member of the Policy Board of the Bank of Japan, at a meeting with local leaders, Gunma, 3 March 2021.

The views expressed in this speech are those of the speaker and not the view of the BIS.

I. Economic Activity and Prices

A. Overseas Economies

I would like to start my speech by looking at developments in overseas economies. In 2020, developments in the global economy took an unexpected turn after the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) began to spread worldwide. Chart 1 shows that the number of confirmed new cases has generally stayed at a high level, although having declined after a resurgence since last autumn, mainly in advanced economies such as the United States and the euro area. Under these circumstances, the global economy has picked up on the whole, although the impact of the resurgence of COVID-19 has been seen in part. The pace of the pick-up, however, has been moderate. While production activity and the trade volume of the manufacturing industry continue to recover, downward pressure has been exerted on the services industry, which is heavily affected by COVID-19.