ADB Kuroda: BOJ must beat deflation, still has tools left

TOKYO, Oct 9 (Reuters) - Japan is alone among advanced and developing nations in suffering from deflation, and solving it is the job of the central bank, Asian Development Bank President Haruhiko Kuroda said on Tuesday.

The Bank of Japan still has many tools available to it to beat deflation, such as buying more government bonds or targeting assets such as index-linked bonds, shares and private debt, Kuroda told reporters in a group interview.

On calls from some Japanese politicians for the central bank to buy foreign bonds to help weaken the yen, Kuroda said the BOJ is prohibited from doping so under current Japanese law.

Kuroda is visiting Tokyo to attend this week's International Monetary Fund meetings.

With interest rates virtually at zero, the BOJ uses as its key monetary easing tool a pool of funds to buy assets ranging from government bonds to corporate debt as well as trust funds investing in shares and property. It does not buy foreign bonds or shares directly from the market.

(Reporting by Yoshifumi Takemoto; Writing by Leika Kihara; Editing by Michael Watson)

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Keywords: IMF/ADB BOJ