MW: Bank of Japan saw deflation easing at Nov. meeting
By Michael Kitchen
LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) -- Minutes from the Bank of Japan's Nov. 19-20 meeting published Thursday showed a monetary policy board not overly concerned with the threat of price deflation. The central bank minutes said the decline in consumer prices was "likely to moderate significantly toward the year-end," and "many members" believed the bank should be "extremely careful when using the term" deflation. However, a Cabinet Office representative attending the meeting had urged the BOJ to "pay due attention to the risk of deflation." The government and central bank had been in a running feud over how much action should be taken to avoid deflation, and the BOJ later reversed course by calling an emergency meeting Dec. 1 to announce new steps to support prices.
