BoJ minutes: some members said exports may be slow to respond to overseas economies

TOKYO: Some Bank of Japan policymakers said that Japan's exports could be slow to respond to developments in overseas economies due to structural changes, such as a shift in production overseas, minutes of the central bank's August meeting showed on Tuesday.

Members agreed that exports had been weak recently but that exports are likely to recover as overseas economies expand, minutes of the Aug. 7-8 meeting showed.

Members also agreed that inflation is likely to accelerate in the second half of this fiscal year as the output gap improves, the minutes showed.

At the August meeting the BoJ kept policy steady and downgraded its outlook on exports.

At a subsequent meeting last week the BoJ kept policy unchanged despite a run of weak data on factory output and consumer spending.