shown by the fact that the year - on - year growth rate for the april – june quarter, which was released in july, registered 7. 5 percent. the economy has faced downward pressure, such as a slowdown in the real estate market, as authorities have been progressing with structural reforms. on the other hand, the slowdown in growth momentum observed since the beginning of the year has come to a halt due partly to the economic stimulus measures that the authorities have been implementing since the spring. as for the outlook, the chinese economy is likely to continue to see stable growth, albeit at a slightly slower pace. emerging and commodity - exporting economies – mainly the asean economies that are japan ’ s major export destinations – have continued to lack growth momentum. however, the positive effects of recovery in advanced economies have spread to some emerging economies. moreover, as the financial markets have been calm on the whole, a pick - up in domestic demand has been observed in some asian countries. if such developments bis central bankers ’ speeches continue, emerging and commodity - exporting economies should gradually show an improving trend, although a high degree of uncertainty remains. in the world economic outlook released by the international monetary fund ( imf ) in july, the growth rate of the overall global economy for 2014 was revised slightly downward – affected by the deceleration in the january – march quarter – but the projection of the growth rate accelerating toward 2015 remained unchanged. the bank likewise expects that the global economy will moderately increase its growth rate. this is mainly because, as the chinese economy is continuing to see stable growth – albeit at a slightly slower pace – positive effects of the firm recovery in advanced economies will gradually spread to emerging economies. b. japan ’ s economic activity and prices 1. current situation a. economic activity now i will discuss japan ’ s economic activity and prices. the bank ’ s current assessment is that japan ’ s economy has continued to recover moderately as a trend, although the subsequent decline in demand following the front - loaded increase prior to the consumption tax hike has been observed. looking at developments in private consumption since april 2014, despite the decline i just mentioned, many firms have indicated that the degree of the decline has been broadly in line with expectations. in terms of sentiment, the consumer confidence index, which had been relatively weak for some time, has improved for two consecutive months. yet a wide range of indicators should continue to be monitored closely, as the adjustments in some aspects of housing starts and of automobile sales

##gment of the underlying trend of inflation, because this cpi includes items that temporarily show large fluctuations, such as fresh food. in this regard, the cpi for all items less fresh food, or the core cpi, is considered to be the most useful index to identify the trend of the cpi for all items. the bank in fact uses the year - on - year rate of change in the core cpi when referring to the forecasts of prices presented in the outlook for economic activity and prices, in which it outlines its thinking on the future conduct of monetary policy. other indices that demonstrate the underlying fluctuations in the cpi include the cpi ( all items less food and energy ) and the cpi ( 10 percent trimmed mean ). 3 these indices aim at identifying the underlying fluctuations in the overall cpi by excluding certain items. at the same time, however, they eliminate a certain proportion of items consumed by households, and thus differ somewhat from price indices that comprehensively reflect the structure of household consumption. for example, food expenditures in japan account for a larger proportion of household consumption expenditures than in other countries ; the cpi ( all items the loan support program consists of two measures : the fund - provisioning measure to stimulate bank lending and the fund - provisioning measure to support strengthening the foundations for economic growth. the 10 percent trimmed mean is obtained by rearranging year - on - year rates of individual price changes in ascending order, excluding items corresponding to both the upper and lower 10 percent tails of weights and then taking weighted averages of the remaining items. bis central bankers ’ speeches less food and energy ) of japan covers 68 percent of the total items, which is nearly 10 percentage points below the 77 percent coverage in the united states. in terms of the effects on economic activity, it is also necessary to monitor developments in the cpi ( all items less imputed rent ), which – as i mentioned earlier – reflects household consumption expenditures and is used to deflate such figures as wages. as illustrated, each price index is not necessarily perfect for grasping the underlying trend of the overall cpi or the effects on economic activity. i think you would agree that it is not appropriate to judge whether the price stability target is achieved solely by examining the core cpi, for example. in my view, the achievement of the price stability target should always be judged comprehensively by examining the cpi for all items, the core cpi, and other pricerelated indicators to identify changes in the underlying trend of the overall cpi. the same basically holds true for