But it did not offer much confidence, to me at least, that monetization is an effective way out of the current predicament in Japan or that initiating an inflation target, once having encountered this problem, would be effective. 4.
Turning to the Australian economy, I will approach this by way of my usual practice of reviewing the forecasts I gave the Committee last time and presenting some new ones. Last time I said we expected GDP growth through 2002/03 to be between 3½ and 4 per cent - we are now forecasting around 3 per cent.