industries was 6. 4 percent, up from the june tankan. in the household sector, the employment and income situation has been improving steadily ; as a result, private consumption has been resilient. turning to labor market conditions, the active job openings - to - applicants ratio is currently 1. 24, a level last seen in 1992, and the unemployment rate has declined to 3. 1 percent, a level last seen in 1995. thus, labor market conditions have continued to tighten and japan is in a situation close to “ full employment. ” as seen in the diffusion index for employment conditions released in the september tankan, firms ’ perception that they are facing a shortage of labor has intensified, and labor market bis central bankers ’ speeches conditions seem to continue to be tight despite the flattening of exports and production ( chart 2 ). with corporate profits having risen to historically high levels and the tightening in labor market conditions continuing, there has been upward pressure on wages. scheduled cash earnings have been increasing on a year - on - year basis for three consecutive quarters since the turn of the year, reflecting in part increases in base pay, which has gone up for two years in a row. moreover, various surveys suggest that summer bonuses this year were raised again following the substantial increase last year ( chart 3 ). on the back of the steady improvements in the employment and income situation, private consumption in the julyseptember quarter increased on a quarter - on - quarter basis. taking, in addition, more recent anecdotal evidence into account, the bank judges that private consumption has been resilient. with a virtuous cycle from income to spending in both the corporate and household sectors in place, japan is likely to continue to see real gdp growth through fiscal 2016 of about 1. 0 – 1. 5 percent. this rate exceeds japan ’ s potential growth rate, which is currently estimated to be around 0. 5 percent or lower. prices let me turn to prices. the year - on - year rate of change in the consumer price index ( cpi, all items less fresh food ), which was minus 0. 5 percent just before the introduction of qqe, increased to as high as 1. 5 percent in april 2014, excluding the effects of the consumption tax hike. however, reflecting the substantial decline in crude oil prices since the summer of 2014, annual cpi inflation declined and has been about 0 percent in recent months ( chart 4 ). nevertheless, once the effect

haruhiko kuroda : integrating information and financial systemsbeyond as - a - service remarks by mr haruhiko kuroda, governor of the bank of japan, at the fin / sum 2021, 16 march 2021. * * * introduction i am delighted to be given this opportunity to speak to you at the fin / sum 2021 through a video message. rise of as - a - service the main theme of this year ’ s fin / sum is “ fintech as a service, in search for a platform for digitalized society. ” the term “ as - a - service, ” appearing more frequently nowadays, seems to indicate servitization of product functions or, to put it simply, a business model for providing “ services ” on customer demand, instead of “ sales ” to sell products out to customers. for example, a software service used to consist of a combination of purchase and usage. in the internet society, however, we only have to call for necessary services when they are needed. when we make a restaurant reservation on a smartphone, we only receive a reservation service. as for business activities, various business applications are available — for services such as accounting, ordering and invoicing, customer management and sales support, and human resources and labor management — as software as a service ( saas ) to be called on demand. these developments are not limited to software. various types of as - a - service are appearing one after another, partly with the shift toward a service economy. these include mobility as a service ( maas ) — where a user purchases a mobility service instead of owning a car — and infrastructure as a service ( iaas ) — where a user purchases a service to use it infrastructure, including servers, instead of owning the hardware. these are sometimes collectively referred to as “ everything as a service ” ( xaas ). as - a - service in finance the trend of as - a - service is also emerging in finance. the financial businesses of banking, securities, and insurance are industries that require large fixed costs and strict compliance with regulations. for this reason, instead of recreating financial businesses from scratch, it has become mainstream for fintech providers to utilize deposit and loan services of traditional financial institutions through an open application programming interface ( open api ) to create new customer services and convenient and comfortable user experiences. the bearers of these services are wide - ranging. they are not limited to startups but include large firms with core businesses in