Japan's Minister for Economic and Fiscal Policy: Exiting deflation requires "careful judgment"; focus will be on observing the supply-demand gap.

According to a report by Nikkei, Japan's Minister of State for Economic and Fiscal Policy, Minoru Kiuchi, stated on the 2nd after a cabinet meeting that the government's position remains unchangedthat it needs to "carefully decide" whether to declare an exit from deflationand that it will comprehensively consider underlying price trends and background factors.