The Bank of Japan said on Thursday it would keep its aggressive monetary easing measures in place to overcome deflation and prop up the world’s third-largest economy.
The central bank introduced its monetary easing policy in April under new governor Haruhiko Kuroda, with the aim of achieving two per cent inflation within about two years.
Consumer prices rose 0.4 per cent in June from a year earlier, the first increase in 14 months in a country which has been plagued by deflation for more than a decade.
In July, the bank said the economy was starting to “recover moderately,” in its most upbeat assessment in two-and-a-half years.