BOJ's Sakurai expects inflation to rise on gradual economic expansion and positive output gap

Bank of Japan board member Makoto Sakurai on Thursday said that price rises would pick up the pace by sustaining the economy's gradual expansion and the positive output gap, according to Reuters.

Key quotes (Source: Reuters)

• Appropriate to continue strong monetary easing for the time being.
• Important to gauge the effects and side-effects of easing in judging the sustainability of monetary easing.
• Continuing easing under sound macroeconomic environment could cause imbalances to pile up.
• Sustaining macroeconomic balance and positive output gap for a long time while aiming for price target should be the way to go.
• Uncertainty rising over global economy due to risks of trade protectionism and capital outflow from emerging economies.
• The impact from trade protectionism could become larger on global trade and supply chains.
• BOJ's growth forecasts for Japan economy could deviate downwardly depending on how protectionism and capital outflow from emerging economies spread.
• Expect price rises to pick up the pace by sustaining the economy's gradual expansion and the positive output gap.