Japanese companies forecast inflation will accelerate to 1.4 percent in the year ahead, the same pace that they forecast three months ago, a survey from the Bank of Japan shows.
Consumer prices gains will be 1.5 percent three years out, and 1.6 percent in five years, according to company forecasts, the BOJ said in a Tankan report released on Thursday. In the March survey, companies had forecast inflation of 1.4 percent for the year ahead.
The central bank is injecting record monetary stimulus into the economy to stamp out deflationary expectations and generate stable 2 percent consumer price gains, an environment that Japan hasn’t seen since the early 1990s. Citigroup Inc. is among banks forecasting the BOJ’s main price gauge could drop in coming months because of cheaper oil, challenging Governor Haruhiko Kuroda’s effort.
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