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Economy recovering, confirms BoJ

AFP, Tokyo
Japan's ever-cautious central bank on Friday confirmed what many economists have long been saying: the world's second largest economy is recovering thanks to robust exports.
But the Bank of Japan maintained its ultra-easy money conditions Friday -- announcing no change in monetary policy after a regular two-day board meeting -- to underpin the export-led recovery, which is far from vigorous as consumers continue to spend in the face of layoffs and salary cuts.
"Japan's economy is starting to recover gradually...(and) is anticipated to continue recovering, albeit at a moderate pace," the BoJ said in its monthly report on recent economic and financial developments for November.
"Exports are increasing and capital investment continues a gradual recovery," said the bank, adding housing construction remains sluggish and consumption is weak.
The central bank said industrial production, which had been flat, has started to increase and the decline in household income is gradually coming to a halt.
"A positive economic cycle has started moving forward. I mean this time 'started,' not appears to be starting," BoJ governor Toshihiko Fukui told a news conference.
Fukui said he was concerned about chilling effects of terrorist attacks on global financial markets, but added that recent drops in Japanese stock prices were unlikely to derail the recovery.
The BoJ's latest statement appears slightly more bullish than the conclusion in its October report: "The foundation for a gradual recovery in Japan's economy is being laid as the environment for exports and business sentiment has improved."
Going forward, the BoJ remains cautious about the outlook for Japan's more than four-year period of uninterrupted deflation, under which prices have been falling, discouraging consumers from rushing to purchase bigticket items on the expectation they would get cheaper.
"As for consumer prices... they are basically projected to continue falling gradually since the imbalance between supply and demand in the economy still remains considerably large despite its gradual improvement," it said.
The BoJ has been tackling deflation by offering commercial banks massive amounts of funds as there is little room for cutting Japan's already super-low interest rates, which are about zero percent for overnight lending.
The bank last eased credit October 10 to support economic recovery by raising the upper limit of the outstanding balance of current accounts held at the bank to 32 trillion yen (294 billion dollars) from 30 trillion yen.
But it has left official interest rates unchanged for two years.
The bank briefly touched upon investors' main concern that the yen's long-held strength against the dollar would keep Japanese products expensive overseas in dollar terms and undermine the nation's export-led recovery.