This indicates firms’ aggressive stance of setting higher prices on the sales front, evidencing the resilience in private consumption. Having said that, although the year-on-year rate of change in real wages – which greatly affects the sustainability of consumption – had recently been rising rapidly, it has just reached close to 0 percent.
Thus, I would like to pay attention to the future pace of improvement in real wages. In assessing developments in private consumption, consumption by pensioners warrants attention. With the aging of the population, the number of pensioners has reached close to BIS central bankers’ speeches  3  40 million, and the effects their behavior exert on overall private consumption have become significant.