Takatoshi Ito, a Columbia University professor whose role in bringing inflation targeting to Japan helped trigger one of the most aggressive monetary easing experiments in modern history, has died. He was 74.
Ito died on Sept. 20 from an unspecified illness, according to a statement on his personal website. One of the highlights of his contributions to academic research and economic policy making was convincing former BOJ Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda to aim for stable inflation of 2%.
Kuroda, Ito’s former boss at the Finance Ministry, unleashed his bazooka of ultraeasy monetary policy in April 2013, a few months after the BOJ adopted the price objective for the first time. While the initial intention was to achieve the goal in a span of about two years, it took more than a decade for the central bank to bring the goal in sight, with policy normalization and interest rate hikes not starting in earnest until March last year.
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