The Bank of Japan acknowledged defeat Tuesday in its quest to achieve its 2 percent inflation goal during Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda's term through April 2018, dealing a major setback to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his Abenomics policy mix that was designed to tame prolonged deflation.
The central bank, however, left its monetary policy unchanged, with Kuroda saying that the nation's economic situation remains little changed from late September, when the BOJ's last Policy Board meeting was held.
The central bank has already pushed back the time frame for attaining its inflation target four times since Kuroda took office in 2013. His term ends in April 2018 and the BOJ now hopes to meet its target sometime in the fiscal year that starts that month.