Step 4: Ex post impact assessment 2/7  BIS central bankers' speeches  In a final step, once instruments have been applied and the effects have been observed over a sufficiently long period of time, the impact of reforms can be assessed ex post. Currently, such a framework for the evaluation of post-crisis financial sector reforms is lacking at the global level.
The year-to-year increase in consumer prices (excluding the effects of institutional changes such as the rise in the consumption tax rate) has been declining close to zero . As for the future, prices overall are likely to soften reflecting the continuous expansion of the output gap in the domestic economy and the decline in overseas commodity prices.