Kuroda sticks to his monetary easing guns, says more may come

Tokyo

BANK of Japan governor Haruhiko Kuroda went on the offensive on Wednesday in justifying the bold actions taken last week by the central bank, even to the point of suggesting that further monetary easing could be taken if Japan's escape from deflation should be threatened. He likened the deflation that gripped the economy for almost two decades until late last year to a "chronic disease" while warning that "a half-baked medical treatment will only worsen the symptoms".

The BOJ's strong medicine has had a dramatic impact on Tokyo stock prices and on the yen - reactions which continued on Wednesday. The Nikkei 225 average reversed early losses and ended marginally higher at 16,937.32 while the yen hit a new seven-year low of below 114 to the dollar.