V.  Final remarks  More than five years have passed since the global financial crisis, and yet the central banks in large advanced economies continue to conduct unprecedented highly accommodative monetary policy to boost the economy and prevent disinflation.
Sales and prices have recovered a bit since the start of this year, but there is little sign to date of a sustained improvement in construction activity. Weakness in construction has been accompanied by declines in output of a range of manufactured products over the past year.1 Steel is one obvious example. Mining activity in China has also been affected.