THE Bank of Japan (BOJ) does not need to ease monetary policy further for the time being since a delay in hitting its inflation target is mostly due to slumping oil prices, the policy chief of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party said Friday.

    Tomomi Inada, among Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s closest aides, also warned that further monetary easing may accelerate a fall in the yen and hurt small firms in regional areas of Japan.

    “A weak yen is beneficial for big companies with global operations. But we must also be mindful of the negative aspects of a weak yen,” Inada told Reuters.

    “When yen falls accelerate, there are damages to small and regional companies,” she said, signaling that further sharp yen falls were undesirable.

    The BOJ has kept monetary policy steady since expanding its stimulus in October last year to prevent slumping oil prices, and a subsequent slowdown in inflation, from delaying a sustained end to 15 years of grinding deflation.

    But inflation has ground to a halt and is set to turn slightly negative in coming months due to oil price falls and feeble consumer spending.

    The central bank pushed back the timeframe for achieving its inflation target last month but refrained from easing further, convinced that rising wages and improvements in the economy will accelerate inflation early next year.(SD-Agencies)