Meantime, in a quarterly outlook report, the central bank said that Japan's economy is likely to improve gradually from the second half of this year, with the pace is expected to be only moderate while the impact of COVID-19 remains worldwide.
Policymakers noted that the outlook for economic activity and prices are extremely unclear, depending on the consequences of the virus and the magnitude of their impacts on domestic and overseas economies. Based on the assumption that a second wave of infections will not occur, the GDP for the 2020 fiscal year is expected to shrink between 4.5% to 5.7%, compared with an earlier forecast of -4.7%.
Meantime, the CPI is projected to drop between 0.4% to 0.6%, compared with the previous estimate of -0.5%.