Today, I would like to explain first the current situation and the outlook for Japan's economic activity and prices, particularly the content of the April Outlook Report, focusing on the underlying mechanism of developments in economic activity and prices. I will then talk about the conduct of monetary policy in such an economic and price situation. I.
The Monetary Board had to respond promptly and carefully to these inflationary risks to the inflation target. In the course of 2005, we raised our policy interest rates by a total of 75 basis points and increased reserve requirements by 200 basis points.