view, therefore, japan ’ s economy is currently experiencing adjustments arising from positive structural changes. there is no need to be unduly pessimistic simply on account of the current low growth rates in wages and prices. rather, i personally find the current state of the economy to be very promising, since both demand and supply are improving in a balanced manner, and developments in wages and prices are steadily making progress toward increases. what is crucial in this situation is not to hinder these positive developments. to this end, i think that it is important that the bank continues to pursue powerful monetary easing under the current framework for monetary policy. at the same time, i hope to see continued progress in the various initiatives and efforts by the government and firms toward strengthening the economy ’ s growth potential, including structural reforms. 7 / 7 bis central bankers'speeches

as a result of swift and aggressive responses taken by the government and central bank in each country and region, tension in financial markets has abated somewhat. however, the markets have remained nervous due to a decline in liquidity. in addition, although japan's financial system has maintained stability on the whole, financial conditions have become less accommodative in terms of corporate financing, as seen in deterioration in firms'financial positions. ii. conduct of monetary policy next, i will explain the bank's conduct of monetary policy. the bank considers that the important thing in terms of monetary policy under the recent economic and financial situation is to support financing mainly of firms and maintain stability in financial markets. with this in mind, in march and april, it enhanced monetary easing. moreover, at the unscheduled monetary policy meeting held on may 22, the bank decided to introduce a new fund - provisioning measure to further support financing mainly of small and medium - sized firms. the bank has introduced and enhanced the following three measures since march : purchases of cp and corporate bonds, ( 2 ) the special funds - supplying operations to facilitate financing in response to the novel coronavirus ( covid - 19 ), and ( 3 ) the new fund - provisioning measure. through these three measures, which are referred to as the special program to support financing in response to the novel coronavirus ( covid - 19 ) with the total size of about 75 trillion yen, it will actively support financing mainly of firms while cooperating with the government. in addition, with a view to maintaining stability in financial markets, the bank has been providing ample yen and foreign currency funds without setting upper limits mainly through purchases of japanese government bonds ( jgbs ) and the conduct of the u. s. dollar funds - supplying operations, and has been actively purchasing assets such as exchange - traded funds ( etfs ). by conducting these measures, it will continue to contribute to supporting financing mainly of firms and maintaining stability in financial markets. the bank recognizes that powerful monetary easing measures will contribute to supporting economic and financial activities, coupled with various measures by the japanese government as well as those by the government and central bank of each country in response to the spread of covid - 19. on this basis, the bank will closely monitor the impact of covid - 19 for the time being and will not hesitate to take additional easing measures if necessary. thank you.