Economic Developments Abroad I would like to begin my speech by talking about the current situation of overseas economies. The pace of recovery in overseas economies has slowed as the effects of rapid policy interest rate hikes that have been carried out by central banks since 2022 have gradually started to weigh on the real economy.
In its January 2023 World Economic Outlook (WEO) Update, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) projected that the global economic growth rate would slow from an estimated 3.4 percent in 2022 to 2.9 percent in 2023. An indicator measuring business sentiment has stayed below 50, the break-even point between improvement and deterioration (Chart 1).