TOKYO (AP) - Japan's central bank says the world's third-biggest economy is "picking up" as demand recovers in other countries and remains resilient at home, though the trade deficit widened in April, for the tenth straight month.
The Bank of Japan ended a policy meeting on Wednesday with no change to its strategy of doubling the monetary base to reach a 2 per cent inflation target and jolt the economy out of two decades of stagnation. That outcome was expected.
The central bank said in a statement, though, that there is a "high degree of uncertainty concerning Japan's economy" and that prices show no signs yet of rebounding.
Japan's economy grew by 3.5 per cent in the last quarter, but progress in increasing exports and boosting corporate investment and wages has lagged. A weakening in the Japanese yen linked to the aggressive monetary easing has helped to stabilise exports, which climbed by 3.8 per cent in April from a year earlier, but it is also accentuating rising import costs.
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