Rectifying the situation requires interventionist policies, such as community re-development, infrastructure spending, job training and addiction programmes. For Europe, Bernanke recommended that the continuing labour market reforms that are necessary should be accompanied by training and other work force development; that structural reforms should be accompanied by demand policies; and that political legitimacy should be ensured through subsidiarity.
Hence, the decline in prices, especially in wholesale prices, may somewhat accelerate in the future. 1  This report was written based on data and information available when the Bank of Japan Monetary Policy Meeting was held on December 15, 1998.