FILE PHOTO: Japan's Finance Minister Taro Aso attends the G20 Finance and Central Bank Deputies Meeting in Tokyo, Japan January 17, 2019. REUTERS/Issei Kato
“I never said we could retract the 2 percent inflation target,” Aso told reporters when asked to explain the earlier comment. The government and the central bank issued a joint statement early in 2013, just before Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda took office, in which the BOJ vowed to achieve 2 percent inflation and the government pledged to restore tattered public finances.
Earlier this month, the finance minister told parliament that the central bank could give itself more flexibility in how it defines its 2 percent inflation target, raising speculation that policymakers are no longer focused on the price goal.