Hitoshi Suzuki: Economic activity, prices, and monetary policy in Japan

Speech (via webcast) by Mr Hitoshi Suzuki, Member of the Policy Board of the Bank of Japan, at a meeting with local leaders, Yamaguchi, 26 May 2021.

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

I. Recent Economic and Price Developments

A. Economic Developments

I would like to begin my speech by talking about overseas economies. Overseas economies have recovered on the whole, albeit with variation across countries and regions. Specifically, the economy has continued to recover in China, where the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) subsided earlier than any other places, and the U.S. economy has also recovered, partly due to the effects of the additional economic measures since the end of 2020. On the other hand, European economies, mainly for the services industry, have continued to be pushed down with the impact of the resurgence of COVID-19 remaining. As for the outlook, overseas economies are likely to continue recovering on the whole, led by growth in China and the United States for the time being. Nevertheless, the pace of economic improvement is highly likely to be uneven across countries and regions, mainly due to differences in the future course of COVID-19, the pace of the vaccine rollout, and the stance on fiscal policy conduct.