BOJ chief sees increasing chance of achieving 2% inflation goal

Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda said Monday that Japanese companies have become more proactive in setting prices and wages, and the likelihood of attaining the central bank’s 2 percent inflation target is “gradually rising.”

Ueda made the remarks after the BOJ last week stuck to its ultralow rates but decided to allow long-term government yields to rise above its previously rigid ceiling of 1.0 percent to reduce side effects.

In a speech to business leaders in Aichi Prefecture, central Japan, Ueda acknowledged he could not foresee the stable and sustainable achievement of the inflation targe...