(CEP News) - The Bank of Japan continues to have a grim outlook for the domestic economy according to the minutes from the March 17-18 monetary policy meeting.
According to the minutes released Friday (Thursday night EDT), the central bank could cut its economic forecast at the April meeting.
However the bank is not changing it's outlook for economic recovery. "Assuming that expectations about medium- to long-term growth would remain generally unchanged -- the economy was likely to start recovering, at the earliest, from the latter," the minutes read.
The minutes added that some members said the bank should increase the purchase amount of Japanese Government bonds "in order to make greater use of its long-term funds-supplying operations and thereby facilitate smooth money market operations."
Following the release of the minutes Japanese stocks are opening higher. Tokyo's Nikkei opened up over 1% to 9,041.
By Neils Christensen, neilsc@economicnews.ca
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