out - - based on a comparison among japan, the united states, and germany in terms of the year - on - year rate of change in the cpi excluding food and energy for fiscal 2017 - - that the low rates of increase in administered prices and housing rent contributed significantly to the low inflation rate in japan, which was the lowest among the three countries. 5 the january 2020 outlook report pointed to the continued lackluster see https : / / www. boj. or. jp / en / mopo / outlook / gor1807a. pdf. see masai takako, " economic activity, prices, and monetary policy in japan : speech at a meeting with business leaders in mie, " bank of japan, september 2019. 5 see box 6 " developments in administered prices and housing rent, " in the july 2018 outlook report. when imputed rent is included, the total share of housing rent and administered prices accounts for almost 50 percent of the cpi excluding food and energy. developments in administered prices and housing rent as a factor delaying price rises. in this respect, housing rent has continued to make positive contributions to the cpi for tokyo's 23 wards as a trend since around the middle of 2018 against the backdrop of the recent uptrend in land prices. on a nationwide basis, the contributions turned positive for the first time in 11 years in the cpi for november 2019. if this trend continues, housing rent will be a factor affecting the long - term trend in prices, and i am paying attention to this situation. turning to overseas economies, there have been active discussions regarding factors causing low inflation and policy conduct in such an environment, reflecting the continuing global phenomenon of prices not rising easily. in this situation, prices in japan have shown somewhat different developments recently compared with those in other countries. looking at the long - term price trends, the inflation rate has risen in japan while it has declined in the united states and europe. in my view, the background to the situation where the inflation rate in japan has been rising in general, despite the global trend of prices not rising easily, reflects in substantial part the powerful monetary easing that the bank has been pursuing based on the joint statement with the government in january 2013. 2. baseline scenario of the outlook for prices with regard to the outlook for prices, the year - on - year rate of change in the cpi for all items less fresh food is likely to increase gradually toward 2 percent, mainly on the back of the output gap

others clearly do not. and in some cases the position is unclear although a strong or reasonable argument can be made that they do provide cover. the framework is designed to identify and monitor insurers ’ approaches to these types of policies, to set out our expectations in relation to these, and to indicate that matters will be escalated where those expectations are not met. tracker mortgage examination as a result of our work on the tracker mortgage examination, lenders have been required to pay €708m in redress and compensation to 41, 700 affected customers. we are now well into our related enforcement investigations. as you probably know, last month we fined kbc more than €18. 3m for its tracker - related failings, which followed the €21m fine imposed on ptsb last year. investigations continue into the other main lenders. although we have concluded the supervisory phase of the examination, we continue to monitor the outcome of all complaints, decisions by the financial services and pensions ombudsman and court cases to identify any systemic or other issues with wider customer impact. credit unions finally, the committee has requested information about the central bank ’ s regulation of the credit union sector. credit unions are an important part of the irish financial system given their community presence across the country, their role in financial inclusion and the €16. 2bn 1 worth of savings they hold on behalf of their 3. 4m members. our role in regulating the credit union sector is to ensure that it operates in a transparent and fair manner and safeguards its members ’ funds. our tailored and proportionate regulatory framework and supervisory approach recognises the nature and scale of credit unions and also continues to evolve as can be seen from the recent changes to their investment framework which enable increases in longer term lending, including home mortgage and business lending. last month we published our latest report on the nature and type of risks identified during our supervisory work with credit unions. our analysis covers risks across governance, credit, operational risk, business model risk and investment, liquidity and capital risk. weaknesses were evident in a number of credit unions in each of the risk categories, including governance and credit underwriting. the report is intended to be a practical reference tool for all credit union boards and management teams. we expect them to consider and act on the findings. conclusion these are exceptional times and require exceptional responses to address the pandemic, sustain the economy and support the ensuing recovery when it comes. over the last seven months, we have