Japan has not yet beaten deflation despite years of persistently rising consumer prices and the largest round of annual wage increases in three decades, the country’s finance minister has warned.
Katsunobu Kato’s blunt assessment in an interview with the Financial Times comes 15 months into the Bank of Japan’s efforts to “normalise” the economy and gradually reintroduce positive interest rates, after a quarter-century-long battle to steer the country away from falling prices.
Kato acknowledged that Japan was experiencing rising prices and that other trends appeared positive, but said the government could only declare victory over deflation when it saw no prospect of sliding back.