BOJ's inflation target remains elusive with flat February data

Tokyo

BANK of Japan governor Haruhiko Kuroda's 2 per cent annual inflation target for the Japanese economy appeared to be far off on Friday when it was revealed that the core annual rate of price increase had fallen to zero in February.

The central bank's options for remedying the situation are diminishing rapidly, analysts said.

The so-called headline core consumer price index (CPI), which includes oil but excludes volatile fresh …