Bank of Japan Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda on Monday admitted that achieving an inflation target of 2 percent in about two years is "very ambitious" but said the central bank can achieve the goal in late fiscal 2014 or early fiscal 2015.
"We expect the inflation target of 2 percent could be reached sometime in late (fiscal) 2014 or early (fiscal) 2015," Kuroda said at a forum held in Tokyo, noting that the BOJ's monetary easing measures have so far been having the intended effects on financial markets and the economy.
Under the bank's large-scale monetary measures introduced in April, centering on doubling the monetary base and boosting purchases of government bonds, the BOJ aims to achieve the inflation target of 2 percent in about two years to overcome more than a decade of deflation.