Inflation target can be reached: BOJ chief

BANK of Japan (BOJ) governor Haruhiko Kuroda yesterday voiced fresh confidence that the central bank can achieve its 2 per cent annual inflation target, and that a raft of "supply side" reforms planned this year by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government will also nudge the Japanese economy towards its official growth targets.

Mr Kuroda hinted during a Tokyo seminar that in his view, there may be room for the yen to fall further against the dollar, with the BOJ set to maintain super-easy monetary conditions even as the US Federal Reserve continues to "taper" its massive Treasury bond purchases.

Raising inflation expectations in Japan has been an uphill battle requiring shock tactics by the BOJ in order to overcome an entrenched deflationary psychology in the world's third largest economy, he told the seminar organised by Japan's Institute of International Monetary Affairs.