BOJ Kuroda: No plan to cut rates further now – Reuters

Bank of Japan (BOJ) Governor Haruhiko Kuroda speaks during an upper house financial committee meeting of the Parliament in Tokyo, Japan February 18, 2016.

Reuters/Toru Hanai

Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said on Friday he is not thinking about pushing interest rates further into negative territory now.

“The economy is a living thing, so we’ll always scrutinize risks and won’t hesitate to adjust policy if necessary to achieve our price target,” Kuroda told parliament.

The BOJ stunned markets by adopting a negative interest rate policy in January to reflate the economy out of stagnation and achieve its ambitious 2 percent inflation target.

(Reporting by Leika Kihara and Stanley White; Editing by Chris Gallagher)