BOJ governor sticks to his guns on 2% inflation target

Tokyo

BANK of Japan (BOJ) governor Haruhiko Kuroda insisted on Wednesday that the central bank's 2 per cent annual inflation target will be met some time around fiscal 2015 beginning April 1, amid signs that the BOJ's already-controversial policies could become ensnared in national politics.

Mr Kuroda defended himself in parliament, saying that he had never promised that the target of a 2 per cent annual rise in core consumer prices would be achieved within exactly two years of the introduction of aggressive monetary easing; he said he had estimated that the target would be met "around fiscal 2015".

Meanwhile, his deputy Kikuo Iwata was reported to have said in the north-eastern Japanese city of Sendai that the recent collapse in oil prices had not hampered a broad uptrend in consumer prices, which…