One of the assumed important mechanisms for the achievement of such price rises is the output gap of the economy as a whole (Chart 11). Looking at the output gap, which shows the balance between aggregate demand and supply, a positive gap has taken hold for the past few years, with demand exceeding supply.
Based on the outlook for economic activity that I mentioned earlier, although the output gap is likely to narrow temporarily within positive territory, mainly due to the effects of the global economic slowdown and the consumption tax hike, it is expected to remain at around  8  the current level on average.