Japan Eco Min Akazawa: ‘critical stage’ in eradicating the public’s deflationary mindset

Japan Economy Minister Akazawa:

• No change to the government’s stance to work closely with the BOJ on policy with an eye on the economy and prices.
• In deciding whether to declare a full exit from deflation, what’s important is to ensure Japan does not slip back into deflation again.
• Once we are able to declare a full end to deflation, we can relieve ourselves from deploying the tools we had in store to fight deflation.
• Japan’s economy is at a ‘critical stage’ in eradicating the public’s deflationary mindset and shifting to a phase where growth is spearheaded by higher wages and investment.

It doesn’t sound like Akazawa thinks the job is over on fighting deflation?

Given inflation data consistently above the BoJ 2% target I think he needs to chillax a little.

This article was written by Eamonn Sheridan at www.forexlive.com.