BOJ defends inflation-targeting strategy

Tokyo

BANK of Japan governor Haruhiko Kuroda insisted yesterday that the BOJ's policy of targeting 2 per cent annual consumer price inflation is "working" despite the fact that the central bank has been forced to revise down its forecast for inflation in the fiscal year beginning April 1 to one per cent from 1.7 per cent.

When Mr Kuroda took over the helm at the BOJ nearly two years ago he set an aggressive monetary easing policy designed to double the monetary base within the space of about two years from April 2013 and to convert nearly two decades of deflation into annual inflation of 2 per cent.