BOJ's Kuroda says not debating exit from easy policy -Mainichi

FILE PHOTO: Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda speaks at a news conference in Tokyo, Japan, December 19, 2019. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon

TOKYO (Reuters) -Japan's central bank is not debating an exit from ultra-loose monetary policy, Governor Haruhiko Kuroda has said, and will not do so during the rest of his term through April 2023, the Mainichi newspaper reported on Thursday.

"As long as our current price projection lives, there's no chance we will debate (an exit policy)," the paper quoted Kuroda as saying in an interview.

"We're not engaging in any debate of an exit. Doing so is inappropriate given Japan's price developments."

While rising fuel costs are pushing up wholesale prices, the chance of Japan's consumer inflation accelerating sharply was "very small" as households have yet to become tolerant of price hikes, Kuroda said.

"The key would be wage growth," he added, arguing that steady increases in wages would be crucial for consumer inflation to sustainably head toward the Bank of Japan's 2% target.

"Japan's economic recovery is slower than that of the United States and European countries, and (consumer) inflation is just 0.5%," Kuroda was quoted as saying.

"As such, there's no need to scale back monetary stimulus or shift toward policy tightening. Doing so is unlikely," he added.

The benchmark 10-year Japanese government bond (JGB) yield hit a six-year high of 0.225% on Thursday, creeping near the implicit 0.25% cap the BOJ sets around its 0% target, on speculation the BOJ could follow in the footsteps of other central banks and start dialing back its massive monetary stimulus.

(Reporting by Leika Kihara and Daniel Leussink; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Kim Coghill)

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