However, it is too early to make an assessment on households' spending attitudes at this point, and we would like to carefully examine additional data when they become available. 5  II. Price Developments Next, I will explain price developments (Chart 11). A sustained decline in prices continued in Japan for many years.
In order to overcome this situation, the Bank introduced quantitative and qualitative monetary easing (QQE) in 2013 and has pursued a large-scale monetary easing since then. Subsequently, the economy has improved significantly and the year-on-year rate of change in the consumer price index (CPI) has taken hold in positive territory.