TOKYO (MNI) – Bank of Japan Governor Masaaki Shirakawa said on
Friday that there is no fundamental difference between the central bank
and the government in economic assessment, the Nikkei reported on
Friday.
There was no government request for further policy action, such as
increasing the BOJ’s outright purchases of Japanese government bonds, he
also told reporters in a scrum.
The governor held a routine meeting with Prime Minister Yukio
Hatoyama at the Prime Minister’s Official Residence earlier today. The
purpose of the meeting was to compare notes on the economy and financial
markets on a regular basis.
The BOJ and the government agreed to hold similar meetings every
three months, Shirakawa was quoted as saying by the Nikkei.
The two sides last met for general exchanges of views in December
last year. Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Naoto Kan and BOJ
Deputy Governor Hirohide Yamaguchi also attended Friday’s meeting.
After a two-day policy meeting on Wednesday, the BOJ board left its
overall assessment of the Japanese economy more or less unchanged from
last month, but noted that the global economic growth is solid, which
should support Japan’s export-driven recovery.
“Japan’s economy has been picking up (vs. is picking up in March)
mainly due to improvement in overseas economic conditions and to various
policy measures (vs. mainly due to various policy measures taken at home
and abroad),” said the BOJ.
Later Shirakawa told a news conference: “The economy has been
picking up and its sustainability has become clearer. That made us push
our assessment one step forward from last month.”
The Cabinet Office will release the government’s own monthly
economic report on April 16.
tokyo@marketnews.com
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