BOJ likely to cut inflation forecasts for current, next fiscal years: sources

TOKYO (Reuters) – The Bank of Japan is likely to cut its inflation forecasts for this fiscal year and the year to March 2020 at a meeting later this month with price pressures remaining stubbornly weak, people with direct knowledge of the bank’s thinking said.

More than five years after Governor Haruhiko Kuroda embarked on a massive easing policy aimed at stoking 2 percent inflation, the BOJ will likely cut its projection for core consumer prices for this fiscal year to around 1.0 percent from April’s 1.3 percent projection, and for next year to around 1.5 percent from 1.8 percent, the three sources told Reuters.

They spoke on condition of anonymity as the discussions are private.

The central bank will scrutinize structural factors behind the weakness in consumer prices when it conducts a quarterly review of its long-term growth and price projections, sources have said.

The core consumer price index, which includes oil products but excludes volatile fresh food prices, rose 0.7 percent in May from a year earlier, the same rate as April and far below the BOJ’s target of 2 percent.

Disclaimer: Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. All CFDs (stocks, indexes, futures) and Forex prices are not provided by exchanges but rather by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual market price, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Therefore Fusion Media doesn`t bear any responsibility for any trading losses you might incur as a result of using this data.

Fusion Media or anyone involved with Fusion Media will not accept any liability for loss or damage as a result of reliance on the information including data, quotes, charts and buy/sell signals contained within this website. Please be fully informed regarding the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, it is one of the riskiest investment forms possible.