In the April-June quarter of 2015, private consumption was somewhat weak, reflecting in part bad weather. Against this backdrop, the projected real economic growth rate for fiscal 2015 was revised downward to 1.2 percent in the Outlook Report compared with the projection of 1.7 percent in the July 2015 interim assessment (Chart 1).
By now, the meaning of the term New Normal has become narrower, as it tends to refer specifically to the monetary policy framework that is appropriate to deal with a macroeconomic scenario in which low interest rates, low potential output growth and low inflation last for quite some time. A “low-for-long” environment, in a nutshell.