BIS Review 153/2009  3  Effects of the financial crisis and challenges for Japanese financial institutions As seen above, Japanese financial institutions faced the current global financial crisis without being able to change substantially the existing management characteristics.
Though we see a considerable increase in wage growth, households' purchasing power is still subdued, as inflation is only slowly coming down. The muted global economy and the necessary tightening of monetary policy are dragging on growth in the euro area. This is also reflected in the Eurosystem staff's latest forecast, which has revised downwards the growth prospects for this year and next year.