At meetings scheduled for this week, the Bank of Japan will maintain its policy settings, according to economists surveyed by Bloomberg, amid a growing view that the BOJ will eventually use greater flexibility in yield movements as a tightening measure.
All 46 analysts surveyed expect no change in monetary policy at the end of a two-day meeting Wednesday. Some 63 percent think inflation forecasts will be "largely unchanged" in a quarterly outlook report due out with the policy statement, while 33 percent predicted a minor downgrade.
The survey also showed that more than 90 percent of the analysts do not expect the central bank to take extra action to support the economy when the consumption tax is increased to 10 percent next year. Most of them expect the central bank to have tightened policy within a year of the tax rate going up in October.