Outgoing Aso gives his side of story on inflation target

Lower aim: Customers shop at a seafood stall in Tokyo. It would be hard to achieve 2% inflation, and that the target must be lowered, according to Aso. —Bloomberg

TOKYO: Japan’s outgoing Finance Minister, Taro Aso, has proposed lowering the central bank’s 2% inflation target when prices took a hit from plunging oil prices from 2014 through to 2015.

Aso, who was finance minister for nearly nine years, said the oil price slump was among the main reasons the government could not officially declare an end to deflation.