- Haruhiko Kuroda, BoJ Governor
Japan's industrial production increased for the second consecutive month in October and retail sales rose more than expected, a sign the world's third biggest economy started to recover from a recession. Factory output climbed 1.4% last month from September's 1.1% gain, driven by general-purpose machinery, cars and electronics. However, on an annual basis production dropped 1.4%, posting the sharpest decline since June. A separate report showed Japan's retail sales rose 1.8% in the year to October, compared with market's forecast of a 0.8% annual increase. The recent data suggests that the Japanese economy is headed for a modest recovery over the current quarter, after it slipped into recession for a second straight quarter. Japan's GDP dropped 0.2% in the July-September period, the same pace of decline as in the second quarter.
Meanwhile, the BoJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said the central bank was determined to reach its price stability goal of 2% and argued that fundamentals remained still strong despite Japan's current state of recession. Kuroda's comments came after official data showed the national core CPI declined 0.1% on an annualized basis in October.
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