Japan's central bank sees economy improving

Japan's economic activity has continued to increase as production and exports strengthen, the Bank of Japan (BOJ) said Tuesday in its monthly economic report for October. According to Japan's central bank, both business investment and private consumption have continued to increase, while investment in housing and public investments have also shown signs of improving. "Production and exports have continued to increase, although their paces have moderated after going through the recovery phase immediately following the quake-induced plunge," the BOJ said. "In this situation, business fixed investment has been increasing moderately, aided partly by the restoration of disaster- stricken facilities. Private consumption has also been picking up on the whole, although weakness remains in some aspects of consumer behavior," said the report. The BOJ expects overseas economic growth to remain on a positive track, despite some government ministries saying that foreign economies represent a downside risk to Japan's economic growth. The report noted however that domestic corporate goods prices will likely stay weak for the foreseeable future and financial conditions at small firms will remain adverse. "Financial conditions have continued to ease, albeit with weakness still being observed in the financial positions of some firms, mainly small ones," said the BOJ. The central bank decided at the end of its two-day policy board meeting on Friday to maintain its key target interest rate at below the 0.1 percent level and keep the size of its asset-buying program at 50 trillion yen (652 billion U.S. dollars) with razor- thin interest rates to help boost the nation's post-quake, protracted economic recovery.