BOJ still behind 2% inflation target as wages lag

Tokyo

FOUR years after the Bank of Japan set a 2 per cent inflation target, price gains may still be coming up short, according to a survey of economists by Bloomberg News.

Consumer prices will rise an average 1.4 per cent the fiscal year through March 2017, after failing to reach 2 per cent - stripped of fresh food and a sales-tax boost - in any of the years since the goal was set, the median of 16 estimates shows. Governor Haruhiko Kuroda wanted to get there in about two years when he unleashed his record stimulus plan in April 2013.

Japan, the first major developed nation to battle deflation since the 1930s, has debated whether and how to boost prices since they started dropping in t…