- Haruhiko Kuroda, BoJ Governor
The Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda still remains optimistic about the country's economic prospects and inflation, highlighting a divergence in the BoJ policymakers' views, as his colleagues expressed concerns about consumption and exports earlier the previous week. While Kuroda acknowledged that a decline in demand has been observed in durable goods such as cars following the sales tax hike in April, he said the higher rate's adverse impacts are likely to diminish over the summer, bolstered by solid income and job conditions.
Kuroda also reiterated his pledge to expand stimulus without hesitation if inflation faltered on the path to his 2% target rate and if risk factors undermine the outlook for growth. In addition to that, he highlighted that the central bank will closely monitor how a decrease in real income affects consumer spending. Kuroda said an advance in summer bonus payments to workers would help consumer spending recover from a lift of the sales tax in April, while labour and supply constraints meant companies were expected to keep raising wages. The BoJ Governor was also optimistic on the outlook for exports, which have remained sluggish even despite weaker Yen, saying that this was due largely to cyclical factors such as a lack of activity in emerging Asian markets.
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