importing economies, mainly advanced economies. in japan, this decline is one of the factors that encourage favorable corporate profits and it also has been supporting households ’ real income. in contrast, the possibility that the decline might exert considerable downward effects on commodity - exporting economies – mainly brazil, russia, and oilproducing countries in the middle east – warrants attention. what kinds of risks would these be for japan ’ s economic activity and prices? a further slowdown in emerging and commodity - exporting economies could possibly lead to a decrease in exports. but what warrants more attention is its effect brought through sentiment. specifically, if business sentiment were to deteriorate, reflecting uncertainties over the outlook for emerging and commodity - exporting economies or reflecting volatile developments in the financial markets, there is a risk that firms ’ fixed investment stance and price - and wage - setting stance will become cautious. if such risk materializes, the virtuous cycle of economic recovery from income to spending would be impaired and the underlying trend in inflation would also be affected. as i have explained, although business sentiment has been on an improving trend, it still is not bullish enough, and thus warrants extra attention. iv. monetary policy management rationale for a negative interest rate policy and its effects taking account of the environment surrounding japan ’ s economy, such as the decline in crude oil prices and the developments in emerging and commodity - exporting economies, as well as the volatility in global financial markets reflecting these developments, there is an increasing risk that an improvement in business sentiment and conversion of peoples ’ deflationary mindset might be delayed and that the underlying trend in inflation might be negatively affected. in order to preempt the manifestation of this risk and to maintain momentum toward achieving the price stability target of 2 percent, the bank decided to introduce “ qqe with a negative interest rate ” at its monetary policy meeting on january 29, 2016 ( chart 9 ). i will explain the objectives and rationale for the newly introduced policy as follows. the bank introduced qqe in april 2013, about three years ago. the main transmission mechanism of qqe is envisaged as pushing down real interest rates by lowering nominal rates across the entire yield curve by large - scale purchases of japanese government bonds ( jgbs ) and by raising inflation expectations through a strong and clear commitment toward achieving the price stability target of 2 percent. qqe has been exerting its intended effects

anselmo l s teng : update of the economic development in macao opening remarks by mr anselmo l s teng, chairman of the monetary authority of macao, at the bis – advanced reserve management workshop, macao, 22 - 25 may 2007. * * * honoured guests, dear delegates, ladies and gentlemen, good morning, first of all, i would like to thank the bis for choosing the macao special administrative region ( msar ) as the venue for this workshop, and for inviting me to deliver this opening remark. i would also like to wish the participants a great stay in this enclave which is a combination of nostalgia and excitement, as well as a good blend of eastern and western culture. let me also take this opportunity to provide you an update of the economic development of macao. as you are aware, macao is a highly open economy. in 2006, macao registered another year of two - digit economic growth, at 16. 6 %. its gdp per capita reached usd28. 4 thousand, representing one of the highest among asian economies. tourism - dominated service exports, investment and private consumption all witnessed strong growth. as the leading industry, tourism showed splendid performance, with visitor arrivals reaching an all - time high of 22 million last year. the economy continued to fare well in the first few months of 2007 as the growth of the tourism sector hardly showed any moderating signs. visitor arrivals increased by 21. 4 % in the first quarter. after years of strong growth, however, the resource constraint and inflationary pressure have become apparent. while unemployment rate further shrank to 3. 2 % in the first quarter of this year from 3. 5 % in the last quarter of 2006, inflation was 4. 57 % in the first quarter after easing from 5. 15 % last year. in the past few years, the economic prosperity has been largely built on the thriving tourism services sector. specialising in a few economic activities, however, is widely believed to be risk prone and unfavorable to macroeconomic stability. diversifying the structure of our economy is therefore closely related to the sustainability of macao ’ s development, employment environment and the stability of the community. for a very small economy like macao that easily faces tight resource constraints and possesses a competitive tourism services sector, any diversification initiative naturally opts for a gradual approach with a long - term perspective in order not to incur a high cost of disrupting the development of the leading