koji ishida : economic activity and prices in japan and monetary policy summary of a speech by mr koji ishida, member of the policy board of the bank of japan, at a meeting with business leaders, in yamaguchi prefecture ( held in shimonoseki ), 29 july 2014. * * * i. developments in economic activity and prices a. overseas economies i would like to start my remarks with a look at developments in economic activity and prices. the bank of japan ’ s current assessment is that overseas economies – mainly advanced economies – have been recovering, albeit with a lackluster performance still seen in part. the average of real gdp growth rates of major countries and regions weighted by value of exports from japan decelerated substantially to a range of 1. 0 – 2. 0 percent in the january – march quarter of 2014, although it had continued to register growth of above 4. 0 percent until the latter half of 2013. the growth rate of the u. s. economy for the april – june quarter of 2014 is scheduled for release tomorrow evening – on july 30 – and rates for other economies will be released subsequently. overseas economic growth seems to be accelerating moderately on the whole. this is because many economic indicators since april, particularly those of the united states and other advanced economies, have improved, and such positive effects appear to be spreading to some of the emerging economies through export channels. i will now look at individual countries and regions. the u. s. economy registered negative growth in the january – march quarter of 2014 for the first time in three years, due partly to the unusually severe winter weather. since then, however, a rebound in a number of economic indicators has been observed, such as a steady improvement in the employment situation. as for the outlook, the economy is likely to gradually accelerate its pace of recovery, led mainly by private demand, albeit with uncertainties such as the size of slack that remains in the labor market. the euro area economy is recovering moderately, registering positive growth for four consecutive quarters. financial markets have been stable as turmoil arising from the european debt problem has subsided, and private consumption and firms ’ production activity have been recovering moderately. for the time being, i will pay attention to the effects of further monetary easing by the european central bank ( ecb ) in june, including the introduction of a negative interest rate. the situation in ukraine and russia also warrants attention. the chinese economy has continued to see stable growth, as

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