In the latest Outlook Report, the forecasts of the majority of the Policy Board members for the CPI are in the ranges of minus 0.6 to minus 0.4 percent for fiscal 2020, 0.2 to 0.5 percent for fiscal 2021, and 0.5 to 0.8 percent for fiscal 2022. Thus, the year-on-year rate of change in the CPI is likely to increase gradually.
That said, it is unlikely that the inflation rate will approach the price stability target of 2 percent with momentum during the projection period since rapid recovery in demand can hardly be expected. Thus far, I have explained the baseline scenario of the outlook for prices, but I would like to note that it is difficult to assess the impact of COVID-19 on prices.