Seventy-five percent of economists and financial analysts surveyed by Kyodo News believe the Bank of Japan will take additional credit-easing measures within three months, amid an increasingly gloomy economic outlook.
A poll of 28 experts saw 21 say the BOJ will ease its monetary grip further within three months, while another two said the central bank will do so within six months.
"The odds are that financial-system instability and deflationary pressures will grow as the pace of outright disposals of banks' bad loans accelerates," said Tomohiro Noda, senior economist at Industrial Bank of Japan. "The BOJ just cannot ignore calls from abroad for further monetary easing."