Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda

private consumption: Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda, often lambasted for staying pat on policy for too long while maintaining unrealistic reflationary targets, yet conversely no stranger to shocking markets when needs must, has consistently maintained he plans to eliminate what he has described as a "deflationary mindset" in Japan, particular regarding business spending, but also private consumption, which account for around 60 percent of Japan gross domestic product, according to Xinhua China. The bank said Friday it plans to achieve its inflation target "at the earliest possible time," amid turbulent oil prices, the protected slump of which has impacted prices here, and voted to apply a negative interest rate of minus 0.1 percent to current accounts held by financial institutions, in a narrow 5-4 vote by its policy board members. The BOJ surprised markets here, with economists widely believing further easing measures announced Friday would be negligible if at all, by saying it plans to introduce a negative interest rate from Feb. 16, as falling oil prices have hampered the bank reflationary efforts, with the shock move aimed at proactively defending against global economic malaise denting business sentiment here. The central bank policy board also decided the bank will further cut the interest rate below minus "as deemed necessary." "The BOJ will cut the interest rate further into negative territory if judged as necessary," the bank said in a statement following its unexpected decision Friday. I thought they had ruled them out due to the risk of side effects," Hideo Kumano, chief economist at Dai-ichi Life Research Institute, was quoted as saying. While the European Central Bank has already plunged into negative interest rates, with President Mario Draghi last week intimating that more stimulus will follow in March from the bank to hit its inflation target, the BOJ initially maintained it was reluctant to follow suit. "This is a scary, dramatic move, and we may see the more negative yields will be, the better the economy gets. (news.financializer.com). As reported in the news.