When the Bank of Japan (BOJ) moved unexpectedly on October 31st, the effect was to galvanise the world's financial markets and, at home, to breathe new life into Shinzo Abe's programme to pull the country out of deflation. The scale of the central bank's action-it will print money to buy ¥80 trillion ($698 billion) of government bonds a year, equivalent to 16% of GDP-directed politics away from a string of distracting cabinet scandals. Mr Abe's plans for the economy had been flagging. A rise in the consumption (value-added) tax in April had prompted an alarming drop in spending by consumers. The first shoots of inflation started to retreat. Having climbed to 1.5% in April, core inflation fell to 1% in September-far off the 2% target that the central bank had said it would achieve by the spring of 2015. Meanwhile, some spread rumours that a conservative old guard at the central bank was regaining sway and could block Haru-hiko Kuroda, its governor, from fulfilling his promise to do "whatever it takes" to rid Japan of deflation.
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