"I would like to make my stance clear that we will do whatever we can do"
- Haruhiko Kuroda, head of the Asian Development Bank
The Bank of Japan's newly nominated governor Haruhiko Kuroda said the bank will do whatever is needed to end 15 years of deflation in the world's third largest economy. Current size and type of asset-purchases are not appropriate to achieve its 2% inflation target, Kuroda added. At the moment the BoJ is purchasing government debt maturing up to three years, as well as exchange-traded funds and other risk assets. Latest data showed that Japan's consumer prices tumbled 0.2% in January on an annual basis, emphasising concerns over current actions done by the nation's central bank. As the soon-leaving current BoJ Governor Masaaki Shirkawa introduced an asset-purchase fund worth 76 trillion yen ($808 billion) and failed to end the process of falling price level and did not succeed at boosting growth in the world's third largest economy, the Bank of Japan is expected to pack a bigger punch under Haruhiko Kuroda.
"I would like to make my stance clear that we will do whatever we can do," Kuroda, president of the Asian Development Bank, said at a confirmation hearing in the parliament in Tokyo Monday.
"If the BOJ were to ease policy, it would therefore be most natural for it to increase government debt purchases and target longer-dated bonds," Kuroda added.
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