Shinzo Abe taps Haruhiko Kuroda, a finance veteran and advocate of monetary easing, to lead Bank of Japan

GlobalPost

The Japanese government has nominated Haruhiko Kuroda, the Asian Development Bank President, to lead the Bank of Japan.

Kuroda has been described as a finance veteran who backs Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's agenda to reverse decades of economic gloom.

The yen fell and Japanese stocks rose on the plans. According to Investing.com, Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index rallied 2.7 percent during late Asian trading.

Kuroda, 68, advocated an inflation target more than a decade before the bank adopted one in January, according to Bloomberg, and said this month that additional easing could be justified for 2013.

Finance Minister Taro Aso lauded Kuroda in remarks to reporters. Experts expect Kuroda to push aggressive monetary policies, a move for which Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is eager. Reuters quoted Kit Juckes, a strategist at Societe Generale in London, as saying "Kuroda is a fan of a weaker yen and of deflation bashing."

Masamichi Adachi, senior economist at JPMorgan Securities in Tokyo, told Reuters:

"Kuroda's nomination won't change the course that has been dictated by Abe in recent months — that is aggressive monetary policy, but perhaps thanks to the inclusion of Iwata the market will expect more eye-catching bold easing measures."

A government official and a ruling coalition executive told Bloomberg that Abe is likely to nominate academic Kikuo Iwata and senior BOJ official Hiroshi Nakaso as deputy governors.

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