In recent years, the sensitivity of consumer prices to a rise in the utilization of resources such as production capacity and labor, or to changes in the output gap, has been declining, and this seems to have been due not only to deregulation and technological innovation but also to economic globalization.
Another characteristic of the current economic expansion is that the financial environment has continued to be extremely accommodative, and this has been supporting private demand. This accommodative financial environment, together with the expansion of the global market and the progress in adjustment of excess production capacity mentioned earlier, has also underpinned the increase in business fixed investment.