Japan's government nominated Haruhiko Kuroda for a second term as central bank governor Friday, handing the veteran finance chief more time to battle deflation and kick-start the world's number-three economy. Kuroda's nomination was among those submitted to the parliament in a document seen by reporters, and had been widely expected.
Handpicked by Shinzo Abe to steer the former economic powerhouse out of a dangerous cycle of falling prices, Kuroda has guided the key monetary plank of the prime minister's vaunted "Abenomics" economic policy. Now 73, the ex-president of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) is on course to become the longest-serving Bank of Japan (BoJ) governor if he completes his second five-year term.
Kuroda took the helm in March 2013 with a mandate to deploy what was called a monetary "bazooka" to stoke life into the moribund Japanese economy. He has overseen a policy of ultra-aggressive monetary easing, adopting in January 2016 the BoJ's first-ever negative interest rates, effectively charging lenders to park their cash at the central bank.