this forum today. this type of forum is a practical step toward achieving the ultimate common goal of asia's bond market development. the global economy continues to recover and the financial system has been maintaining stability. as the imf's managing director expressed in her global policy agenda at the last international monetary and financial committee ( imfc ) meeting, current economic and financial conditions provide " a window of opportunity " to tackle key challenges. stakeholders in the region must maintain the will to further develop and deepen the market. through these concerted efforts, the challenges in fostering bond markets can be overcome. on the 10th anniversary of the asian financial crisis, at a boj symposium, the then governor zeti of bank negara malaysia, stated : asia, especially the asean tigers, is back and poised to leap on to the next wave of economic advancement and prosperity. 6 how correct she was. asia's economy has developed much more vigorously than many had anticipated. economic integration in the region has further deepened through the development of global value chains. looking ahead to the next twenty years, asia's economy will continue to be at the core of world economic growth and we will experience further integration. along with such developments, it is natural to seek more developed and integrated regional financial markets. we can anticipate that twenty years from now, asia's financial markets will have developed to become as efficient and liquid as other major financial centers in the world. thank you for your kind attention. " ten years after the asian currency crisis : future challenges for asian economies and financial markets, " a speech at the international symposium hosted by the center for monetary cooperation in asia ( cemcoa ) of the boj on january 22, 2007 in tokyo ( available from https : / / www. boj. or. jp / en / announcements / release _ 2007 / index. htm / ). asian financial markets － 20 years since the asian financial crisis, and prospects for the next 20 years － november 28, 2017 haruhiko kuroda governor of the bank of japan chart 1 increased resilience less reliance on foreign - currencydenominated short - term funding % growth of asian local currency bond markets us $ trillion indonesia malaysia philippines thailand corporate government cy notes : 1. the figures are the ratios of foreign currency - denominated short - term claims to all claims of foreign banks. 2. the latest data are as of end - june 2017. source : bis. cy notes : 1

reits from 1 trillion yen and 30 billion yen, respectively, to 3 trillion yen and 90 billion yen. next, i will explain what has occurred as a result of these monetary easing measures, as well as the problems with them. ii. consequences of the monetary policy shift trends in production, consumption, and investment first, i will talk about trends in production, consumption, and investment over the period of around two and a half years since the introduction of qqe. chart 1 shows that, excluding the negative effects of the consumption tax hike in april 2014, investment, in terms of domestic shipments and imports of capital goods, has been expanding as a trend, although it has shown weakness very recently. on the other hand, production and consumption have been stagnant. even excluding such factors as the effects of the front - loaded increase in demand prior to the consumption tax hike and the subsequent decline, it is difficult to say that production and consumption have been recovering steadily. the effects of the consumption tax hike have been particularly large on consumption. the synthetic consumption index – which is a combination of supply - side and demand - side statistics and shows similar movements to consumption on a gdp basis – has not yet surpassed the peak before the front - loaded increase in demand. however, it is natural that a consumption tax hike leads to a decrease in consumption because the hike reduces households ’ real income. what is important is whether real consumption is increasing as a trend despite this phenomenon. the bank ’ s baseline scenario is that consumption has been resilient, but i think that there have been some worrisome developments in consumption very recently, as in production. steady growth in employment in contrast, employment has grown steadily since the shift to qqe. as shown in chart 2, the numbers of both part - time and full - time employees have continued rising. the unemployment rate has been declining steadily. the active job openings - to - applicants ratio, as shown in chart 3, was 1. 24 times in september 2015, marking its highest since january 1992. improvement in employment is spreading across japan, although we have heard voices of concern that the economic recovery has only been observed in major cities. as shown in chart 3, the active job openings - to - applicants ratio has risen in all regions, although it had temporarily declined following the consumption tax hike. it rose to 0. 99 times in september 2015 in hokkaido, where the ratio has been the lowest in japan. bis central bankers ’ speeches increase in