The International Monetary Fund said Saturday that the Bank of Japan "needs to stand ready" for further monetary easing to accelerate the country's economic recovery, warning of differences between the central bank and market inflation forecasts.

Though market inflation expectations "rose markedly" since the BOJ introduced large-scale easing in 2013, the nation's key consumer inflation rate remains at around 1 percent, lower than the central bank's target of 2 percent, the IMF said in a concluding statement after its annual consultation mission to Japan.

"The transmission to inflation is taking longer than expected," the Washington-based lender said, citing lower energy costs due to falling crude oil prices, a deeply rooted "deflationary mindset" among Japanese people and structural hurdles preventing wage growth from translating into price rises.