In a speech to BoJ regional branch managers, Governor Haruhiko Kuroda reiterated that the central bank won’t hesitate to add to current stimulus is needed. In particular, he emphasized, “we need to pay closer attention to the possibility that momentum towards achieving our price target will be lost.”
Nevertheless, Kuroda maintained that the economy is likely to continue expanding moderately as a trend, despite overseas slowdown. Inflation is currently moving around 0.5% and is expected to accelerate gradually towards 2%, on positive output gap and rises in inflation expectation.
He also said BoJ needs to monitor the effects of Saturday’s powerful typhoon on the real economy, maintain functioning and smooth settlement of funds.
