Japan Official Denies Reports on Revision of Accord with BOJ

Tokyo, Dec. 19 (Jiji Press)--Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno on Monday denied news reports that the government has decided to revise its joint statement with the Bank of Japan stipulating a target of 2 pct inflation.

"It's not true we've made such a decision," Matsuno told a press conference. "We'll continue to work in cooperation with the BOJ to realize sustainable economic growth with price stability."

Reports have circulated over the weekend that the government is set to revise the statement released in January 2013, based on which the BOJ launched aggressive monetary easing under Governor Haruhiko Kuroda.

The statement, signed shortly after the late former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe took office in December 2012, says that the central bank "will pursue monetary easing and aim to achieve this (2 pct) target at the earliest possible time."

Government data have shown Japan's core consumer price index excluding fresh food prices in October this year rose 3.6 pct from a year earlier, its steepest rise in 40 years and eight months.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]