Masaaki Shirakawa: Recent economic and financial developments and the conduct of monetary policy Speech by Mr Masaaki Shirakawa, Governor of the Bank of Japan, at a meeting with business leaders, Osaka, 25 August 2008. *  *  *  Introduction I am honored to be here today to speak and to exchange views with business leaders from the Kansai region.
In parallel, and supported by the ECB’s comprehensive monetary policy measures, bank loans to the real economy have recovered steadily from their cyclical (and historical) troughs and, towards the end of last year, were increasing at their fastest pace since the crisis.6 This suggests that a sound regulatory framework is an essential element of a country’s growth agenda.