Azumi Calls for Appropriate Step as BOJ Refrains From Easing

Japanese Finance Minister Jun Azumi called on the central bank to further ease policy moments before the Bank of Japan refrained from adding monetary stimulus.

“The BOJ must firmly pursue monetary easing to achieve its 1 percent inflation goal,” Azumi told lawmakers in parliament in Tokyo today. The central bank left its asset-purchase and credit-loan programs unchanged, as anticipated by all 14 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News.