BOJ Outlook Report: Risks to Japan’s price outlook roughly balanced.

“The risks to Japan’s price outlook are roughly balanced,” the Bank of Japan (BOJ) stated in its quarterly outlook report that accompanied the monetary policy statement on Monday.

Key additional takeaways

Japan's economic pick-up becoming clearer.

Inflation expectations heightening moderately.

Consumer inflation hovering at slightly positive territory.

Japan's economy likely to recover.

Japan's consumer inflation likely to accelerate ahead.

Japan's consumer inflation to continue to move around 1% through end of BOJ report's projection period.

 households to become more accepting of price hikes as wage gains accelerate.

Japan likely to see pass-through of costs, price hikes to broaden.

Underlying rise in inflation likely to heighten households' and firms' inflation expectations, push up prices further.