By Leika Kihara

TOKYO (Reuters), Asahi Naguchi, a member of the Bank of Japan’s board of directors, said that while inflation is expected to rise at a faster pace than anticipated due to rising commodity costs and other factors, it must keep monetary policy extremely easy.

Noguchi explained that although raw material prices have risen in Ukraine, companies have been unable to pass the increased cost on to customers because of weak household spending.

He said that Japan may have a core consumer inflation of 2% by April due to rising energy prices and dissipating effects from past phone fee reductions. However, this increase was clearly caused externally rather than domestic demand recovery.

Noguchi stated that Japan isn’t experiencing high levels of inflation like other countries. He also said in a speech that the policymakers should continue to be focused on ending deflation and not curbing it.

He said, “In a country still stuck in a sticky depressionary mindset it will take considerable time to stabilize achieve our 2% inflation goal and justify a withdrawal from stimulus.”

Noguchi’s thoughts echo Haruhiko Kuroda of the BOJ, who has stressed that Noguchi will keep monetary policy loose despite other central banks looking to exit crisis-mode stimulative measures.