respect to timeliness, there has been promising progress. note that for a policy maker, timely information is as important as, or in some cases more important than, reliable and accurate information. according to this criterion, existing transaction - based property price indexes, though accurate, are not helpful in immediate policy making, since they inevitably lag far behind market movements. for example in japan ( chart 8 ), it typically takes 10 weeks from posting in the market to negotiation, 5. 5 weeks from negotiation to actual transaction, and 15. 5 weeks from transaction to being recorded in the government data base. in addition, extra weeks are needed for data collection and compilation, so that the lag is likely to amount to almost a year. first asking price data are timely but not accurate ( because they are biased ), while transaction price data are accurate but not timely, posing a dilemma. however, there is an important way around this dilemma. using previously - owned condominium prices in tokyo, my collaborators and i are able to show that if a hedonic quantile - regression procedure of quality adjustment is applied to both first asking price data and transaction price data, the resulting price distribution is almost identical ( chart 9 ). 13 this implies that if hedonic quantile - regression quality adjustment is appropriate, which is likely, we can use first asking not only does the conventional policy of controlling the overnight interbank rate turn out to be ineffective because of the zero lower bound, but the unconventional policy of asset purchases is also becoming less effective in altering firms ’ and households ’ financial conditions as the long rates themselves move down to a very low level. the bank of japan ’ s funding facilities for financing economic growth and the bank of england ’ s funding for lending scheme are new types of unconventional policy aimed at coping with this problem. see nishimura, k. g., “ funding for financing economic growth – a schumpeterian perspective, ” remarks at the global interdependence center conference on the global financial crisis : lessons from japan, tokyo december 3, 2012. http : / / epp. eurostat. ec. europa. eu / portal / page / portal / hicp / methodology / owner _ occupied _ housing _ hpi / rppi _ handbook. deng, y., j. gyourko, and j. wu, “ land and housing price measurement in china, ” in heath, et. al. ibid., 13

##flation and a modest cooling in the labor market, i see the fed's dual - mandate goals of maximum employment and price stability as being roughly in balance. in light of the progress toward our goals, my colleagues and i on the fomc judged it appropriate to lower our policy rate in september and again last month. these actions were steps toward removing restraint, as we are in the process of moving policy toward a more neutral setting. looking ahead, it is important to emphasize that policy is not on a preset course. i will make decisions meeting by meeting and carefully assess incoming data, the evolving outlook, and the balance of risks. while i have gained more confidence that the two positive supply shocks i described have helped create the solid economic conditions that are currently in place, i will vigilantly monitor for incoming risks or negative supply shocks that may undo the progress that we have achieved in reducing inflation. i view our current policy setting as well positioned to deal with any uncertainties we face in pursuing both sides of our dual mandate. thank you for your time, and i look forward to your questions. 5 / 6 bis - central bankers'speeches 1 the views expressed here are my own and not necessarily those of my colleagues on the federal reserve board or the federal open market committee. 2 see wolters kluwer ( 2023 ), blue chip economic indicators, vol. 48 ( december 8 ). 3 see adriana d. kugler ( 2024 ), " the challenges facing economic measurement and creative solutions, " speech delivered at the 21st annual economic measurement seminar, national association for business economics foundation, washington, july 16. 4 see congressional budget office ( 2024 ), the demographic outlook : 2024 to 2025 ( washington : cbo, january ). 5 see dario caldara, matteo iacoviello, patrick molligo, andrea prestipino, and andrea raffo ( 2020 ), " the economic effects of trade policy uncertainty, " journal of monetary economics, vol. 109 ( january ), pp. 38a€ “ 59. 6 / 6 bis - central bankers'speeches