- Haruhiko Kuroda, BoJ Governor
Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said the Japanese economy is now overcoming deflation, offering a more upbeat outlook for the nation's economy. Thus, the BoJ saw no need of further easing measures to achieve its 2% inflation target. Yet, Kuroda highlighted that the BOJ stood ready to expand stimulus again if the nation's economy falters and threatens to disrupt the broad uptrend in inflation. Consumer prices are likely to start rising again once the impact from a sharp fall in oil prices starts to fade, Kuroda said.
Meanwhile, Japan slid back into a trade deficit in April, a month after booking its first surplus in almost three years, as the drop in the value of oil imports shrank from the preceding month. The world's third biggest economy logged a 53.4 billion yen deficit, according to the Ministry of Finance. Exports surged 8.0% on year, while imports plunged 4.2%. The ministry said the overall deficit was the narrowest since March 2009. The value of crude oil imports plummeted 34.6% from a year earlier compared with a 51% drop last month, while exports of cars rose only 7.2% on year compared with a 10.5% jump last month. The overall volume of imports climbed 0.1% from a year earlier, while exports surged 1.8%. The government and BoJ are relying on demand from overseas to support stronger growth in the fiscal year through March 2016 after the economy was derailed by the nation's sales tax hike last year.
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