"It is a good one and shows its commitment to strike its 2% inflation target"
-Yuji Shimanaka, chief economist at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities
The Bank of Japan led by Haruhiko Kuroda said it doesn't expect consumer prices to reach its stated 2% inflation target within the two year period, but said they may rise to around that level by end-March 2016.The BoJ project inflation rate to stand around 1.9% in April 2015, raising its forecast from 1.4% estimated earlier. In its report Japanese central bank also said the economy would start picking up by the middle of this year due to bold measures introduced earlier, and lifted its forecast for real gross domestic product growth to 2.9% from 2.3%. In the meantime, no board member judged that additional easing is needed now, while Kuroda assured that policy adjustments would be made if necessary.
"We can expect more easing later this year if prices refuse to edge up," Junko Nishioka, chief economist at Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc (RBS) in Tokyo and a former BOJ official, said before the bank released its updated economic projections. "It's imperative for the BOJ to clearly communicate its objectives to maintain expectations that prices will rise."
"It is a good one and shows its commitment to strike its 2% inflation target," said Yuji Shimanaka, chief economist at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities.
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