Thus, Japan's economy is likely to continue on an expanding trend, albeit at a moderate pace. II. Price Developments Next, I will explain price developments in Japan (Chart 9). Looking back from a long-term perspective, for many years starting from the late 1990s, Japan's economy was in deflation in terms of a sustained decline in prices.
Reflecting this situation, the Bank introduced quantitative and qualitative monetary easing (QQE) in 2013, and since then has pursued powerful monetary easing. At present, Japan's economy is no longer in deflation, in the sense of a sustained decline in prices, with the economy improving significantly and the positive annual CPI inflation taking hold.