The Bank of Japan meet on July 30 and 31 and will update their Outlook for Economic Activity and Prices report.

In the report the Bank includes its forecasts, and inflation, way below target, could come into focus again. This seems rather early, but the Nikkei says the BOJ will cut its inflation forecast further in the report

  • Bank of Japan looks to lower its price growth forecast for fiscal 2019 to the neighborhood of 1.5% in late July
  • weak inflation in recent months undercutting the central bank's contention that its 2% target is drawing closer

The piece notes that in April the BOJ scrapped its timeline of "around fiscal 2019" for reaching 2% inflation - the likely July downgrade implies that goal is only getting more out of reach. The implication for monetary policy is it will remain loose in the long term.

More:

  • prediction for fiscal 2018 inflation is to be cut to around 1% from April's 1.3%

-

Nikkei's piece is dated July 1