Japan's central bank upgrades economic view of 3 regions

TOKYO, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) -- The Bank of Japan (BOJ) upgraded its economic view of three out of nine regions in a quarterly report released on Monday, while keeping unchanged the assessment of the other six regions.

In its quarterly Sakura Report, the central bank upgraded its assessment of the economy of three regions - Tohoku, Hokuriku, and Kinki, based on robust exports and increased personal consumption.

Regionally, the economic assessment of the Tohoku region was upgraded due to increased production in general-purpose, production and business oriented machinery, given firms' proactive increase in fixed investment at home and abroad, according to the report.

Economic view of the Hokuriku region, was lifted mainly due to the strengthened momentum in business fixed investment aimed at expanding domestic capacity and saving labor.

Meanwhile, the Kinki region revised up its assessment on ground of the upward momentum in exports and domestic consumption.

The bank kept the view of the Hokkaido, Kanto-Koshinetsu, Tokai, Chugoku, Shikoku and Kyushu-Okinawa regions unchanged.

The Sakura Report, thus named because of the color of its cover, is released every three months after a meeting of the BOJ's regional branch managers.

At such a meeting earlier in the day, BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said that inflation is expected to gain momentum towards the bank's 2-percent goal as the country's economy continued to strengthen.

He said that the BOJ will continue the monetary easing methods until the target can be maintained in a "stable manner."

According to recent government data, Japan's core consumer prices rose 0.9 percent in November 2017 from a year earlier, still way below the 2-percent inflation target. Enditem