Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's economic policy adviser Koichi Hamada on Wednesday urged the Bank of Japan to take additional monetary easing steps if the April 1 consumption tax increase has a "serious impact" on the economy.
The central bank should "take a more aggressive easing policy than everyone expects if data over the (next) two months show a serious impact" on the economy, the Yale University professor emeritus of economics said in a meeting with reporters in New York.
In April last year the BOJ started massive purchases of government bonds in an effort to lift Japan out of more than a decade of deflation. Noting that the yen's weakening sparked by the BOJ's drastic easing has halted, Hamada stressed that the BOJ would not be able to persuade investors about Japan's growth unless it introduces measures to change that situation.