Bank of Japan's board split on inflation target

DISSENSION broke out yesterday among the Bank of Japan's nine-member policy board over whether the central bank can expect to achieve its 2 per cent inflation target in fiscal 2014, but the majority of members stuck to what many private economists see as an over-ambitious target.

The BOJ, meanwhile, revised up slightly its forecast for growth in Japan's real gross domestic product in the year beginning next April from 1.3 per cent to 1.5 per cent.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has staked his political future on being able to turn the economy round from chronic deflation to near 2 per cent annual inflation within…