Bank of Japan raises economic outlook

Tokyo - The Bank of Japan on Tuesday upgraded its assessment of the Japanese economy for the sixth consecutive month as it saw a boost in exports and industrial output.

“Japan's economy has been picking up,” the central bank said after a two-day monetary policy meeting. “Exports started picking up.”

Private investment appears to have stopped weakening in both non-manufacturing and manufacturing sectors while public investment “has continued to increase,” the bank said. “Private consumption has remained resilient.

“Reflecting these developments in demand both at home and abroad, industrial production has been picking up,” the bank said.

The bank also said it would continue to take aggressive monetary-easing measures to pull the world's third-largest economy out of 15 years of deflation.

The bank decided in April to double the monetary base to 270 trillion yen by the end of 2014, from 138 trillion yen at the end of 2012.

The bank's new governor Haruhiko Kuroda, who took office in March, vowed to reach a two-percent inflation target within about two years. - Sapa-dpa