A quick check of the keywords appearing in articles in major newspapers at that time reveals that people’s attention was overwhelmingly focused on inflation rather than deflation. Recently, however, as disinflation has progressed, interest rates have fallen across the world.
An international comparison of the levels of money market rates reveals several countries whose current rates lie within the 0-1.0 percent bracket, in particular Switzerland at 0.2 percent and Singapore at 0.5-0.6 percent. In the United States, the policy interest rate currently stands at 1.25 percent, which, if we make a direct comparison, is the level seen in Japan at the beginning of 1995.