TOKYO: Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda cited a pickup of the Japanese economy at a meeting of BOJ branch managers Thursday.

“Japan’s economy remains in a severe situation but is picking up as a trend,” he said at the start of the one-day quarterly meeting, held via a videoconferencing system. Consumer prices in the nation are expected to bounce back and register moderate growth reflecting rising prices of energy and other products, he added.

At the virtual meeting, chiefs of the central bank’s branches across the country exchanged views on the level of recovery in regional economies at a time when new cases of novel coronavirus infection continue decreasing.

As the impact of the novel coronavirus pandemic wanes gradually, the Japanese economy will recover, partly thanks to a rise in demand from abroad, Kuroda suggested. “If the effect of the COVID-19 crisis subsides, the positive mechanism of incomes being used for consumption will gain momentum and the economy will grow further,” he said.

The BOJ will release later Thursday a report analyzing the economic situations in the country’s nine regions.

In the BOJ’s “tankan” quarterly survey for September, the diffusion index for current business conditions rose for the fifth straight quarter at both large manufacturers and large nonmanufacturers. But the survey also showed that large manufacturers are cautious about their business conditions toward the end of the year, with companies in a wide range of sectors concerned about the fallout of reduced automobile production.

JIJI Press