The government has no immediate plans to ask the Bank of Japan to take additional monetary-easing measures in a bid to prevent the economy from falling into a deflationary spiral, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said Wednesday.
"We are not thinking at the moment of immediately asking the BOJ," the top government spokesman told a news conference.
His comments came ahead of a two-day meeting of the central bank's Policy Board, beginning today.
Fukuda said, however, that the government will "do its best" to fight deflation via close cooperation between the Finance Ministry, the Financial Services Agency, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, and other government bodies.
On Monday, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi promised the Diet he would prevent a deflationary spiral via cooperation between the government and the central bank.