last autumn, downward pressure on the face - to - face services sector intensified after the turn of this year, and the real gdp growth rate for the january - march quarter was negative. since april, the state of emergency has been in effect and priority measures to prevent the spread of disease have been implemented in some regions, against the background of covid - 19 spreading along with an increase in variant cases. downward pressure has continued to be exerted through these factors on economic activity, mainly in the face - to - face services sector. that said, as i will describe later, the global economy has seen an acceleration in its pace of recovery, mainly led by the united states and china. in addition, under the targeted public health measures, japan's economic activity in sectors other than face - to - face services has been maintained to a large degree, and it seems that the economy has continued to pick up. i will explain this in more detail. first, let us look at the household sector. although private consumption picked up from the significant decline seen in the first half of 2020, the pick - up has paused since the turn of this year due to increased downward pressure on consumption of services, such as eating and drinking as well as accommodations. by type, services consumption picked up only moderately in the second half of 2020 and has declined since the turn of this year. on the other hand, consumption of durable goods, such as personal computers and household electrical appliances, has continued to be on an uptrend on the back of an expansion in so - called stay - at - home demand and a demand shift from services. turning to the corporate sector, exports and production have continued to increase against the background of a recovery in the global economy. by goods, the paces of increase in exports and production of automobile - related goods have leveled off, partly affected by a supply shortage of semiconductors. however, exports and production of it - related goods have increased clearly because digital - related demand has been firm. those of goods related to business fixed investment have also increased, reflecting a global recovery in production activity. with increases in exports and production, corporate profits have improved on the whole. on this basis, business fixed investment has picked up. by industry, construction investment in stores and accommodation facilities by the face - to - face services industry has decreased, but a pick - up has been seen in machinery investment and digital - related investment by the manufacturing industry and the nonmanufacturing industry other than

basis, in order to secure the effects of monetary easing, the bank introduced " fixed - rate purchase operations for consecutive days " as a measure to firmly stop a significant rise in interest rates. this new operation enables the bank to conduct the fixed - rate purchase operations, through which it purchases an unlimited amount of jgbs with certain maturities at fixed rates, consecutively for a certain period of time. the third policy action concerns etf and j - reit purchases. these purchases aim at exerting positive effects on economic activity and prices by lowering risk premia in the markets. in the assessment, the bank found that large - scale purchases of etfs during times of heightened market instability are effective in terms of containing risk premia. in order to conduct purchases more flexibly in a prioritized manner, the bank revised the guideline for etf and j - reit purchases. specifically, it abolished the guideline to purchase etfs and j - reits at annual paces of increase in their amounts outstanding of, in principle, about 6 trillion yen and about 90 billion yen, respectively, and decided that it would purchase them as necessary with upper limits of about 12 trillion yen and about 180 billion yen, respectively, on annual paces of increase in their amounts outstanding while taking into account market conditions. all of these policy actions have been devised to enhance both sustainability and nimbleness of monetary easing while striking a balance between its positive effects and side effects. although it will take time, the bank considers that it is possible to achieve the price stability target of 2 percent with the enhanced monetary easing. conclusion thus far, i have explained the bank's thinking on its conduct of monetary policy, mainly regarding the policy actions based on the assessment. the bank has conducted monetary policy measures, including the latest actions, by paying careful attention to not only the positive effects but also the side effects of monetary easing, which has continued to be pursued for a long period. as a consequence, policy measures seem to have become complicated. however, the bank's stance itself is clear : to conduct monetary easing with the aim of achieving the price stability target. this stance has been consistent since the introduction of the target in 2013. while the bank has continued to conduct large - scale monetary easing, the economy has improved significantly and is no longer in deflation. under the framework of qqe with yield curve control, of which sustainability and nimbleness have been enhanced owing to the policy actions based on