In some European countries, central banks have been encouraged to accelerate work on issues surrounding possible public digital currency solutions in order to counter private sector initiatives in stablecoins. In Japan, the amount of cash outstanding is still increasing, and it does not seem that there is a demand for CBDC from the public at present.
When assessing the underlying trend in prices, I consider it appropriate to also examine for the time being the CPI (all items less energy), given that price fluctuations of energy items since 2014 have been exerting a significant effect on the year-on-year rate of increase in the CPI for all items.