live with covid - 19 during the initial phase of the covid - 19 outbreak, policy priority was focused on preventing an increase in unemployment or corporate bankruptcies so that the economy could withstand the spread of the disease, in preparation for the resumption of economic activity after the disease subsided. this is why policy management has been conducted partly with the aim of recovering pre - covid - 19 economic conditions. i personally think that the policy objectives are generally being achieved, in the sense that they are helping the economy to withstand the spread of covid - 19. on the other hand, even after more than half a year has passed since the spread of the disease took hold, people seem to be increasingly recognizing that it will take time to envision a path toward normalization where the risk of infection has been completely dispelled. in this regard, restricting economic activity with measures such as lockdowns is indeed effective if the priority is to contain the spread of covid - 19. however, it has also become clear that such measures have a significant impact on social life. in japan, covid - 19 has not yet subsided, but the country has so far been able to avoid large spikes in the number of severe cases and confirmed deaths. for these reasons, there has been a gradual increase recently in moves to find ways of pursuing economic activity while living with covid - 19, rather than waiting for the pandemic to end. b. signs of change from the perspective of living with covid - 19 next, i would like to talk about the changes that are being brought about by the covid - 19 era. since the gfc, economists have been concerned about the limits of global economic growth or the drying up of growth frontiers. one example of these concerns is the secular stagnation hypothesis presented by professor lawrence summers of harvard university and others. while it had already been acknowledged that potential economic growth rates might be on the decline, especially in advanced countries, concerns are now growing that the recent spread of covid - 19 will further exacerbate secular stagnation. in particular, the pandemic is having a strong adverse impact on the factors that are thought to have driven global economic growth since the 2000s, including globalization, urbanization, and the shift toward a service economy. if it turns out that we are going to have to live with covid - 19 for the next few years, it will likely become harder to return to the growth path observed before the

measures commonly taken by major countries are as follows : income support measures implemented by the government sector, such as unemployment insurance and cash payments ; and support for corporate financing, including loan guarantees and central banks'aggressive funds - supplying measures. in addition, central banks have actively purchased assets such as government bonds, corporate bonds, and cp, while six central banks, including the federal reserve and the bank of japan, have conducted u. s. dollar fundssupplying operations. these asset purchases and dollar operations are considered to have played a significant role in preventing the sharp drop in stock prices and the rise in long - term interest rates that were seen globally this march from deteriorating into a worldwide financial crisis. since march, the bank has taken policy responses in line with the large - scale economic measures conducted by the government. specifically, the bank's measures fall broadly into the following three categories ( chart 8 ). first, the bank introduced the special program to support financing in response to the novel coronavirus ( covid - 19 ) in order to support financing, mainly of firms. the total size of this program amounts to about 140 trillion yen. the program consists of purchases of cp and corporate bonds with the upper limit of about 20 trillion yen, and the special funds - supplying operations to facilitate financing in response to the novel coronavirus ( covid - 19 ), which will be a maximum of about 120 trillion yen. through this special operation, the bank provides funds on favorable terms to private financial institutions that make loans in response to covid - 19. the operation is also applied to effectively interest - free and unsecured loans made mainly to small and mediumsized firms through private financial institutions, for which the government takes the credit risk by providing credit guarantees. second, to maintain stability in financial markets, the bank has adopted a framework through which ample yen and foreign currency funds can be provided in a flexible manner. as for the yen funds, under yield curve control, the bank decided to purchase a necessary amount of japanese government bonds without setting an upper limit. regarding foreign currency funds, the bank has provided a large amount of u. s. dollar funds through the strengthened u. s. dollar funds - supplying operations. third, the bank has actively purchased exchange - traded funds ( etfs ) and japan real estate investment trusts ( j - reits ). the aim of this measure is to lower the risk premia in asset markets, thereby preventing firms'and households'sentiment from deteriorating through