against covid - 19 continues. firms also suffer higher costs due to infection prevention measures and to rises in prices of imported raw materials with the global economic recovery. i therefore consider that firms'price cuts that aim at stimulating demand will still not be observed widely. having said that, as seen in some cases in the united states, it is important from a longer - term perspective that firms improve their profitability through, for example, passing on cost increases by raising prices at the time of the materialization of pent - up demand in order to repay the loans that have grown, mainly in the face - to - face services sector, due to the decline in sales. i am closely monitoring whether firms will adopt a price - setting behavior that reflects the improvement in demand so that their loan repayments and efforts to increase productivity will make steady progress. the third factor is the path of firms'medium - to long - term growth expectations. in the bank of japan's june 2021 tankan ( short - term economic survey of enterprises in japan ), the business conditions di for all industries and enterprises improved for the fourth consecutive quarter. the survey also showed an 8. 1 percent decrease in the business fixed investment plan for all industries and enterprises, including financial institutions, for fiscal 2020 from the previous fiscal year and a subsequent 9. 4 percent increase in the plan for fiscal 2021, returning to a level broadly similar to that of the fiscal 2019 plan ( chart 6 ). thus, there has been no evidence of a decline in firms'medium - to long - term growth expectations. however, attention should be paid to the fact that the business fixed investment plan for fiscal 2021 includes investment carried over from the previous fiscal year. i am paying careful attention to firms'investment behavior, because in order for the economy to achieve sustainable growth, firms'investment to accelerate structural reforms so as to address digitalization and climate change - - i will revisit these issues later - - needs to lead to a sustainable improvement in productivity and in turn an increase in their medium - to long - term growth expectations. ii. conduct of monetary policy let me now turn to the bank's policy conduct. the bank has conducted powerful monetary easing since march 2020 in response to covid19 through the following three measures ( chart 7 ). the first is the special program to support financing in response to the novel coronavirus ( covid - 19 ) to provide support, mainly for corporate financing. the second is an ample and flexible

• • counterparties make investment / loans based on their own decisions. discipline will be exercised through a certain level of disclosure. long - term support for financial institutions'efforts interest rate : 0 % - - the measure will fall under category iii ( applied interest rate : 0 % ) in the interest scheme to promote lending twice as much as the amount outstanding of funds that counterparties receive will be added to the macro add - on balances in their current accounts at the bank duration of fund - provisioning : 1 year, rollovers can be made until the end of the implementation period effectively, counterparties can receive long - term financing from the bank implementation period : in principle, until the end of fiscal 2030 chart 9 u. s. dollar / yen yen 2000 - 2002 : u. s. dot - com bubble burst sep. 2008 : lehman crisis mar. 2011 : great east japan earthquake 2020 onward : covid - 19 pandemic sep. 1985 : plaza accord 1991 - 1993 : japan's bubble burst july 1997 : asian financial crisis 2009 - 2010 : european debt crisis apr. 2013 : qqe in japan cy note : qqe denotes quantitative and qualitative monetary easing. source : bloomberg. chart 10 household disposable income united states japan tril. yen disposable income employee compensation interest income dividend income 2, 000 1, 800 1, 600 10 bil. usd disposable income employee compensation interest income dividend income germany 1, 400 1, 200 1, 000 10 bil. eur disposable income employee compensation interest income dividend income cy80 84 88 92 96 00 04 08 12 16 20 cy80 84 88 92 96 00 04 08 12 16 20 cy 80 84 88 92 96 00 04 08 12 16 20 notes : 1. figures for japan before 1993 are calculated using year - on - year changes in each item in the 2000 system of national accounts. 2. figures for interest income and dividend income in germany are " other interests, rents " and " distributed income of corporations, " respectively. sources : cabinet office ; bureau of economic analysis ; statistisches bundesamt. chart 11 vicious cycle of deflation and virtuous economic cycle from firms'viewpoint weak domestic demand vicious cycle of deflation weak domestic demand shifting of production bases to developing economies domestic prices virtuous economic cycle to achieve sustainable growth growth of overseas economies inflow of low - priced goods from developing economies prices of