Japan's Itoh: BoJ a long way away from reducing monetary policy easing

Motoshige Itoh, A member of the Japanese government's economic and fiscal policy council, is hitting wires reaffirming Japan's dedication to hyper-easy monetary policy.

Itoh noted that at this point, the Bank of Japan (BoJ) is unable to move from their position amidst various easing policies currently under effect, and Itoh encouraged the BoJ, stating that the central bank should remain "tenacious", noting that there's no "no reason why they should give up". The comments come at a time when there's a slowly-growing body of dissent for the BoJ's excessively-easy policies, with critics saying there is little evidence that the central bank's policies have had their desired effect, with Japanese inflation still slumping far below the Bank of Japan's desired 2% target.