Japan’s prime minister Shinzo Abe has for the first time raised the possibility that the world’s third-largest economy could struggle to achieve the target of 2 per cent inflation within two years that he has made a pillar of his economic policy.
“The economy is a living thing and we don’t know what will happen around the world. What is important is to aim steadily for the target,” Mr Abe told parliament on the eve of Haruhiko Kuroda’s first board meeting as Bank of Japan governor.
In an exchange with Seiji Maehara, an opposition politician and former economy minister, Mr Abe said the BoJ should not pursue the inflation target “at all costs”.