In January 2013, the Bank set the price stability target of 2 percent in terms of the year-onyear rate of change in the CPI; in other words, the introduction of an inflation target. Toward achieving this target, the Bank has been implementing aggressive monetary easing called quantitative and qualitative monetary easing (QQE) since April 2013, and expanded the measure in October 2014.
These measures aim at converting people’s deflationary mindset, which has been formed firmly amid the prolonged period of deflation, to the mindset that expects moderate inflation. That is, in other words, preparing a platform on which people can act on the assumption that prices continue to rise moderately.