The ultimate costs of the crisis in terms of unemployment and lost output, although serious and painful, were nevertheless smaller than many had feared. 8  BIS Review 63/2010  The Bank’s measure of core inflation, CPIX, proved to be an invaluable tool in this regard.
During this period, many small and medium-sized firms faced funding difficulties, and from the summer to the autumn of 1998 when financial and capital markets both at home and abroad were under stress due to such factors as the Russian crisis, not a few representative big Japanese firms also faced similar difficulties.