BOJ bows to reality on 'over-ambitious' inflation target

Tokyo BANK of Japan governor Haruhiko Kuroda on Thursday acknowleged what financial markets have long predicted - that the central bank's target of achieving 2 per cent annual inflation within a roughly two-year timeframe from when the BOJ first launched aggressive monetary easing in April 2013 is impossible to achieve.

At a media briefing following the latest monthly meeting of the BOJ's Policy Board, Mr Kuroda announced a pushback in the timeframe for achieving the inflation target to "the first half of fiscal 2016" which begins on April 1 next year.

With inflation having stalled owing to slumping oil prices, the BOJ's nine-member policy board cut its core consumer inflation forecast for the current fiscal year to 0.8 per cent from 1.0 per cent, as analysts had predicted. There was little market reaction.