Doom & Gloom From The BOJ
It’s all thunderclouds and dreariness from the Bank of Japan these days and this week is no exception after Governor Kuroda gave the worst regional outlook in over six years. Say what?!
Early this morning, Mr Kuroda downgraded the outlook of three of Japan’s nine regional economies in one of the largest and most worrisome forecasts in years. His evaluation suggested that domestic exports and factory activity was still under a great deal of pressure from the trade war and subsequent global slowdown – and may in fact still be deepening.
Kuroda further pointed to weaknesses in Japan’s export-dependent growth model that have allowed the economy to stagnate in response to rising levels of economic uncertainty since mid-2018. yikes!
The BOJ has allowed its bonds to remain in negative territory in an effort to stimulate consumption and reach its 2% inflation target. However, with the IMF likely to provide more doom and gloom this week in terms of economic forecasts, Japan may be a long way from getting out of the woods.
Best of luck, Mr Kuroda!