II. Price developments and the path toward achieving the price stability target of 2 percent  Current state of and outlook for prices Let me turn to price developments.
The year-on-year rate of change in the CPI for all items less fresh food, which was minus 0.5 percent just before the introduction of QQE, increased to as high as 1.5 percent in April 2014, excluding the effects of the consumption tax hike.