In these circumstances, short- and long-term contracted interest rates for new loans and discounts (up to September) have stayed at record low levels. On the stock exchange, the Nikkei 225 stock average has been declining since August, partly reflecting uncertainties about future economic growth and the fall in U.S. stock prices, and fell below ¥ in early September.
It dropped further after late October as a result of the precipitous decline in Hong Kong stock prices and temporarily reached around ¥ but has recently recovered to around ¥ In the foreign exchange market, the yen moved at around ¥ to the U.S. dollar between September and October.