The Nikkei Review reported earlier this week that BoJ will likely lower inflation forecast at the upcoming quarterly Outlook for Economic Activity and Prices. The new projections will be published after July 30-31 meeting.
Back in April, BoJ projected inflation to hit 1.3% in fiscal 2018 and 1.8% for fiscal 2019. In the upcoming projections, BoJ could lower than to 1.0% in fiscal 2018 and 1.5% in fiscal 2019. That will bring the figures in-line with forecasters surveyed by Japan Center for Economic Research, which expected 0.94% inflation in fiscal 2018.
BoJ scrapped its “timeline” of hitting 2% inflation target around fiscal 2019, back in the April statement. But it’s been clarified multiple times by BoJ communications that the “timeline” was merely a projection, not a target.
