, and japan real estate investment trusts ( j - reits ), and the fixed - rate funds - supplying operation against pooled collateral. the total amount of the program will be about 35 trillion yen, consisting of about 5 trillion yen for purchases of financial assets and about 30 trillion yen for the fixed - rate funds - supplying operation against pooled collateral. the bank has already begun purchasing jgbs and corporate bonds, and the first auction for the purchase of cp is scheduled for tomorrow, december 10, 2010. the bank also decided to start purchasing etfs and j - reits in the near future. as the bank has been explaining, this is a temporary and extraordinary measure for a central bank. moreover, the bank did not adopt this measure lightly, since it entails the critical issue of making sure that the risks involved in holding various risk assets are properly managed in order to ensure the financial health of the central bank of japan. b. the bank ’ s measure to support strengthening the foundations for economic growth lastly, i will move on to talk about the fund - provisioning measure to support strengthening the foundations for economic growth, which the bank decided to introduce at the monetary policy meeting held on june 14 and 15, 2010. the measure supplies long - term funds at a low interest rate against eligible collateral to financial institutions in accordance with their efforts in terms of lending and investment toward strengthening the foundations for economic growth. japan ’ s economy faces the critical challenge of overcoming deflation and returning to a sustainable growth path with price stability. to achieve this, the key, in my view, is to tap potential demand, and both economic entities in the private sector and the authorities need to continue to make steady efforts to this end. the main cause of the current deflation is the negative output gap, which largely reflects a long - term downtrend in the economic growth rate since the 1990s. however, looking again at major trends such as demographic developments and globalization, can we really say that japan has nothing to gain from these trends? i do not think so. it all depends on one ’ s perspective. for example, demographic trends can be seen as a shrinking of the total and the working - age population, or they can be seen as an increase in the importance of the elderly. similarly, global warming is an issue that requires an immediate response, but even more important is a medium - to long - term strategy covering the next 10 or 20 years. regarding the fund - provisioning measure to

s. economy is likely to continue recovering on the back of increasing exports and accommodative monetary policy. it must be added, however, that in the labor market employment conditions have not improved greatly, with unemployment, for example, remaining at a high level. consequently, balance - sheet adjustments in the household sector – that is, the restoration of financial health, including the repayment of household debt – are unlikely to gather pace, so that the pace of recovery is likely to remain moderate. economic activity in the euro area as a whole has been recovering moderately, with some differences in growth by country : germany has performed strongly while other countries have lagged behind. although the pace has been slowing, exports and production have continued to increase, while domestic demand components, such as private consumption, have been rising from the previous quarter. for the present, the euro area is likely to continue recovering moderately. however, attention needs to be paid to the effects of fiscal bis central bankers ’ speeches consolidation, which from next year will start in earnest also in the major economies, and to volatility in financial markets due to concerns over the public and private debt problems in some of the peripheral countries. b. emerging and commodity - exporting economies although emerging and commodity - exporting economies are often grouped together, they are a diverse group. here, i will focus on the major east asian economies, since they are most relevant to japan. first, the chinese economy has continued to show high growth of around 10 percent. although the pace of increase in exports has been slowing due to a deceleration in overseas economies such as the united states, domestic demand, as indicated by retail sales and investment in fixed assets, has continued to show high growth. like china, south korea, taiwan, thailand, and other nies and asean countries also experienced continued economic growth driven by domestic demand, although inventory adjustments in it - related goods are casting a shadow on the outlook for exports. overall, it is very likely that emerging and commodity - exporting economies will continue to show relatively high growth due to robust domestic demand and capital inflows from overseas. the pace of growth of the chinese economy is likely to decelerate somewhat due, among other things, to government measures to restrain the increase in real estate transactions. however, given the continuing increase in private consumption, growth is nevertheless likely to remain relatively high. economic conditions in the nies and asean countries are expected to follow a recovery trend due to the in