Bank of Japan: 2% inflation remains target, as oil decline will 'disappear eventually'

On Friday, Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said that the domestic price trend is still upward for the long-term, because the negative effect of last year's plunge in crude oil prices on consumer inflation will "disappear eventually."

In his speech to the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan, the governor said that markets are unlikely to seek any monetary policy implications in what is projected to a temporary downward effect of lower energy prices on the year-on-year change in core CPI, which is set to slip further to zero and into negative territory.

The BoJ "will make adjustment as necessary without hesitation, when there are changes in the underlying trend in inflation, especially in developments in inflation expectations, in order to achieve the price stability target at the earliest possible time," he said.

Kuroda reiterated that the BoJ can anchor 2% inflation "around fiscal 2015" ending March 31, 2016.