Inflation is the worry of most economies, but not Japan

By ELAINE KURTENBACH
AP Business Writer

The Federal Reserve and most other central banks are moving into anti-inflation mode as the pandemic recovers to immediate strength despite the new coronavirus outbreak. But while soaring prices are haunting consumers and confounding economic planners in the US and other countries, they remain a distant worry in Japan. Its world’s third-largest economy began to slow down in the early 1990s with the bursting of a financial bubble and never really regained momentum. The Bank of Japan on Friday opted to reduce purchases of corporate bonds but will continue to pump tens of billions of dollars into the economy in hopes of eventually hitting its elusive 2% inflation target.