The Bank of Japan (BoJ) may need to keep up its stimulus drive for an “extended period”, the International Monetary Fund said Friday, as it warned again that Tokyo must follow through on promised economic reforms.
The Bank of Japan (BoJ) may need to keep up its stimulus drive for an “extended period”, the International Monetary Fund said Friday, as it warned again that Tokyo must follow through on promised economic reforms.
Fears that a recent sales tax rise would dent a recovery in the world’s number three economy have boosted speculation that the BoJ would be forced to expand its monetary easing campaign to counter any downturn.
The Washington-based IMF said that the bank’s target to reach 2.0 per cent inflation by next year — aimed at conquering years of falling prices which held back growth — would most likely be reached by 2017 instead.
“The BoJ should act quickly if actual or expected inflation stagnates or growth disappoints,” the Fund said in its annual review of Japan’s economy.
“The current aggressive pace of monetary easing may need to be maintained for an extended period.”
The IMF has been upbeat on Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s policy blitz — a mixture of big government spending and central bank monetary easing dubbed Abenomics, which is designed to drag the economy out of years of deflation and laggard growth.
But the plan’s so-called “third arrow” — reforms that include more flexible labour markets and free-trade deals — have been more talk than action so far.
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Alfonso Esparza