are mostly unchanged mainly due to the decrease in prices of electric machinery. meanwhile, consumer prices continue to be somewhat weak owing to the slight decrease in the prices of private - sector services and the decline in prices of imported products reflecting the past appreciation of the yen. corporate service prices are still falling slowly. this report was written based on data and information available when the bank of japan monetary policy meeting was held on 11 august 2000. the bank ’ s view on recent economic and financial developments, determined by the policy board at the monetary policy meeting held on 11 august 2000 as the basis of monetary policy decisions. as for the outlook on prices, downward pressure on prices stemming from weak demand is declining significantly while an economic recovery is expected to continue moderately. upward pressure on prices is likely to arise temporarily from the increase in crude oil prices. on the other hand, in addition to the declining trend of machinery prices due to technological innovations, the decline in prices of consumer goods arising from the past appreciation of the yen and the streamlining of distribution channels will exert downward pressure on prices. thus, prices overall are expected to be stable or weak somewhat. in the financial market, the overnight call rate has generally stayed near zero, and financial institutions have been confident about the availability of overnight funds. the amount of funds outstanding in the call money market has decreased slightly. interest rates on term instruments once declined from mid - july, but have recently increased again reflecting the change in expectations that the zero interest rate policy would be terminated. the japan premium remains negligible. yields on long - term government bonds recently increased somewhat, and has been around 1. 75 percent. the yield spread between private bonds ( bank debentures and corporate bonds ) and government bonds remains mostly unchanged as a whole. stock prices fell from mid - july mainly due to the filing of reconstruction proceedings by a major retailer and the decline in u. s. stock prices. in the foreign exchange market, the yen fell moderately towards the end of july and the yen - dollar exchange rate temporarily rose to around 110 yen. the yen is currently being traded in the range of 107 - 109 yen to the u. s. dollar. with regard to corporate finance, private banks have basically retained their cautious lending attitude. however, constraint that had been caused by severe fund - raising conditions and insufficient capital base has eased considerably. given this, major banks continue to be more active in extending loans, while carefully evaluating the credit risks involved. on the other hand, the

story here in canada has some symmetry so far : global and domestic factors combined to drive inflation up, and both will need to retreat further to get us back down to the 2 % target. canada ’ s experience in a global context so far, i have talked a lot about how canada ’ s experience had a good deal in common with other countries. but we can also see some differences. so let me spend a few minutes comparing where we are on a few dimensions relative to some of our counterparts. 4 our current rate of inflation, while still too high, is the second lowest in the g7 advanced economies. 5 japan ’ s is lower, at 4 %. and momentum in inflation, 2 for a detailed account of how higher interest rates work to cool demand and bring inflation down, see t. macklem, “ monetary policy at work ” ( speech delivered to cfa quebec, quebec, quebec, february 7, 2023 ). 3 bank of canada, “ canadian economy, ” monetary policy report ( january 2023 ) : 23 – 25. 4 all data for cross - country comparisons are from the organisation for economic co - operation and development or national sources via haver analytics or bloomberg. 5 the g7 consists of canada, france, germany, italy, japan, the united kingdom and the united states as well as the european union. the inflation comparison is based on headline consumer price index inflation across these jurisdictions. - 5as measured by the rate of change in prices over the past three months, has also been close to the bottom of the g7. it ’ s also important to note that services price inflation in canada has levelled off in recent months, while it has continued to rise in some other countries. these rankings could move around a little in the coming months, of course. but they ’ re all rankings where being near the bottom is a good thing. let me turn to economic performance : canada has recorded the strongest growth in gross domestic product ( gdp ) in the g7 since the tightening cycle began early last year. and the international monetary fund expects canada to have the strongest average gdp growth in the g7 over 2023 and 2024. 6 that ’ s good news, but it underscores that our interest rate increases still need to work their way through the economy to ensure demand cools enough for supply to catch up. our employment growth has also been strong compared with most of the g7. we ’ ve had the second - strongest recovery in jobs and