Japan on track to hit growth and inflation targets, says BOJ chief

Tokyo

ECONOMIC growth in Japan "is turning positive" and downward pressure on prices will be seen to have disappeared from April, the head of the Bank of Japan (BOJ) said in parliament on Wednesday, a day after Tokyo pledged to reinforce its focus on economic growth.

BOJ governor Haruhiko Kuroda acknowledged that the effect of last year's national consumption tax hike had been "bigger than expected", but added that the slack in the world's third-largest economy had mostly disappeared, and that the economy was responding positively to the central bank's monetary-easing programme.