TOKYO: Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said there is no pre-set deadline for ending its massive monetary stimulus, signalling that the bank's two-year timeframe for meeting its price target is not a rigid one.
Kikuo Iwata, one of the BoJ's two deputy governors and an architect of its "quantitative and qualitative easing" (QQE), also said there was uncertainty on exactly when inflation will hit 2 percent.
"It's not set in stone like a train timetable," Iwata told parliament on Tuesday, when asked about the two-year timeframe the BoJ set last April in meeting its price target.
"What is important is for the BoJ to act ... and make the utmost efforts to achieve 2 percent inflation," he said.
In deploying its stimulus programme last April, the BoJ pledged to double base money via aggressive asset purchases to hit its 2 percent inflation target in roughly two years.
The remarks underscore a growing feeling within the BoJ that it may take longer than expected for inflation to hit 2 percent, as falling oil prices and a weak economy weigh on prices.
BoJ officials argue that the two-year timeframe was never a rigid deadline and left room for some flexibility. But some market players feel the BoJ ought to ease further if it fails to accelerate inflation to 2 years by around April next year.
"There's no pre-set deadline for our quantitative and qualitative easing," Kuroda said.
"I have been saying all along that we will aim to achieve 2 percent inflation at the earliest date possible, with two years in mind," he told parliament.
Kuroda stuck to his optimistic view of the economy, saying that it will continue to recover moderately as companies and households emerge from the pain from a sales tax hike in April.
Consumer inflation may slow somewhat due to recent declines in oil prices but will likely accelerate toward 2 percent from late this year through early next year, he said.
The BoJ is set to roughly half its 1 percent economic growth forecast for this fiscal year at a meeting on Friday but maintain its projection that inflation will accelerate and hit its 2 percent target in the year from next April, sources have told Reuters.
Private economists have long expresses scepticism that the central bank would meet it its target within that timeframe. A Reuters poll released last week showed most analysts expect it to ease policy further in early 2015.
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