potential growth rate rising through an improvement in productivity as a wide range of entities continue with initiatives concerning structural reforms and growth strategies. take recent developments for instance ; namely, the output gap being positive and labor market conditions remaining considerably tight, as evidenced by the existing labor shortage. such underlying developments seem to have given rise to changes in employment practices, including increased mobility in the labor market brought about by the efficient allocation of excess labor resources from sectors with low productivity to those with high productivity. alongside this, progress in working - style reforms and other initiatives suggests a deepening awareness among both workers and managers of the need to raise productivity. pursuing structural reforms and growth strategies is not an easy task and a fairly extensive process. nonetheless, it is safe to say that the necessary conditions for a rise in productivity, which will bring about a boost in japan ’ s growth potential, gradually are being fulfilled. i believe these developments will play a role in underpinning the virtuous cycle from income to spending. specifically, a rise in productivity will act as a starting point of such cycle, stimulating price rises through increases in wages and private consumption. effects of monetary policy are not directly transmitted to economic entities — namely, individual firms and households — and thus may take time to materialize in the form of backing up their efforts. however, they should be able to support various initiatives as the bank ’ s conduct of monetary policy stimulates aggregate demand and suitably tight supply - demand conditions are maintained. therefore, with a view to achieving its price stability target and realizing sustainable economic growth in a coordinated manner, the bank needs to persistently continue with its powerful monetary easing and consistently provide support for the initiatives of a wide range of economic entities. 5 / 5 bis central bankers'speeches

possible time. to this end, the bank has been pursuing powerful monetary easing, considering developments in economic activity and prices, as well as financial conditions, under the framework of quantitative and qualitative monetary easing ( qqe ) with yield curve control. the bank, under this framework, has been conducting yield curve control, in which it controls shortand long - term interest rates. specifically, at present, according to the guideline for market operations, the bank sets the short - term policy interest rate at minus 0. 1 percent and purchases japanese government bonds ( jgbs ) so that 10 - year jgb yields will remain at around 0 percent. by conducting this operation, short - and long - term interest rates have been stable at low levels, and i consider that the highly accommodative financial conditions, brought about by yield curve control, have stimulated firms ’ and households ’ spending activities. meanwhile, prices have continued to show relatively weak developments compared to the economic expansion and labor market tightening, with policy board members ’ forecasts presented in the april 2019 outlook report indicating that it likely would still take time to achieve the price stability target. as part of its efforts to do so, at the monetary policy meeting ( mpm ) held on april 24 and 25, the bank decided to clarify forward guidance for policy rates. specifically, the description of the existing guidance was partially revised, thereby making clear that the bank would “ maintain the current extremely low levels of short - and long - term interest rates for an extended period of time, at least through around spring 2020, taking into account uncertainties regarding economic activity and prices including developments in overseas economies and the effects of the scheduled consumption tax hike. ” by doing so, the bank clarified its unchanged policy stance to persistently continue with the current powerful monetary easing. what i would like to call attention to here is that the current extremely low levels of short - and long - term interest rates will be maintained “ for an extended period of time ” and that the inclusion of “ at least ” in the description regarding the time frame of the guidance indicates a fair possibility that the current low interest rates will be maintained beyond “ around spring 2020. ” in other words, “ for an extended period of time ” does not denote “ through around spring 2020 " ; rather, it implies an open - ended period even beyond that. the bank also decided at the april mpm to implement measures contributing to the continuation of powerful monetary easing. specifically, the bank