BOJ let the cash flow in a bid to finally stamp out deflation

The Bank of Japan refrained from boosting unprecedented easing as accelerating inflation marks progress in its bid to stamp out 15 years of deflation in Asia’s second-biggest economy.

Haruhiko Kuroda
黒田　東彦
Governor of the Bank of Japan

Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda’s board stuck to its pledge to expand the monetary base by an annual ¥60 trillion to ¥70 trillion on Wednesday after a two-day meeting in Tokyo.

 The BOJ maintained its forecast that core consumer prices will rise 1.9 percent in the year starting April 2015, excluding the effect of sales-tax increases, and scrapped a reference to the economy facing “uncertainty.”

With the BOJ’s preferred inflation gauge at more than half of its target 2 percent pace, analysts from HSBC Holdings Plc. to Daiwa Securities Co. have pushed back forecasts for when the central bank may add to easing. Kuroda’s policy makers may wait to assess trends in wages and the effects of the sales-tax increase in April before deciding on any extra stimulus.