Bank of Japan Deputy Governor Signals Further Monetary Easing to Beat Deflation

Bank of Japan may ease monetary policy further if required, to boost growth in the lagging economy, said the central bank's deputy governor Hirohide Yamaguchi.

Addressing business executives in Nagasaki, southern Japan, Yamaguchi said that officials should make use of the current opportunity to beat deflation as Japanese economy looked set for a modest recovery from its recent slump.

"The BOJ may pursue further monetary easing if deemed necessary, while carefully scrutinizing economic and price developments," said Yamaguchi, one of the two deputy governor's of the central bank, according to a Reuters report.

"We're ready to take a decisive policy response as ever".

Giving out a positive outlook for the global economy, the deputy governor suggested that the recent recovery in China and US could help the Japanese economy to pick up towards the middle of this year.

Yamaguchi suggested that consumer inflation rates could touch one percent by the year ending March 2015 if economic growth continue at the estimated pace.

"Now is a good chance for Japan to end deflation," he said. "We shouldn't miss this window of opportunity".

Stubborn deflation levels and weak external demand have weighed the Japanese economy lower in the recent months. The country is technically in recession after revised official figures confirmed that growth contracted for two straight quarters.

The Japanese government, which came to power on stimulus promises, had pressured the BoJ to adopt aggressive stimulus measures that could help shore up the economy. Following this, the central bank hiked its inflation targets to 2 percent and announced US Federal Reserve-style open ended asset purchase programme that is scheduled to start next year.

In 2010, BoJ had decided to take up asset purchase and lending scheme as its primary monetary easing mechanism, under which it has agreed to pump 101 tn yen by the end of this year. The central bank's interest rates are already at very low levels.

BOJ Governor Masaaki Shirakawa, in a meeting after the policy decision, had further indicated that there is still room to boost the asset purchase programme that could further improve the economic conditions.