Reuters
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on Friday the economy's retreat to deflation cannot be ruled out because domestic demand-driven inflation remains feeble. "Inflationary pressure based on domestic demand is not strong yet, as current consumer price increases are brought by global raw material inflation and a weak yen," Kishida told an upper house parliament session. Asked by an opposition lawmaker if the Japanese economy has fully exited from the deflationary situation, Kishida said: "the state of non-deflation is going on at the moment, but it has not reached a stage where we can judge that the return (to deflation) is unlikely."