And as a result of these effects, Japan’s labor market situation has shown improvement, as mentioned earlier. However, closer inspection shows that the Japanese labor market still suffers from some of the problems that arose during the period of deflation. For example, there has been no reversal in the growing reliance on part-time workers.
Finally, the outbreak of the coronavirus poses a new risk. As regards the euro area, growth remains weak, driven by the negative effect of the world trade slowdown on manufacturing and investment. Recent macroeconomic data for the final quarter of 2019 for a number of euro area meber-states are a source for concern.