Bank of Japan Hits 2% Inflation Target After 13 Years; Perth Gran Hits Hers in a Week at the Butcher’s
Tokyo celebrates a long-awaited milestone. In Perth, prices of mince were said to have 'reached target some time ago'.
Tokyo, where reaching 2% took a mere 13 years. Photo: yt_siden, “Bank of Japan Head Office, Tokyo - Aug 29, 2011”, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0
The Bank of Japan has finally hit its 2% inflation target after thirteen years of trying, a milestone that economists around the world have greeted with relief.
In Perth, the news was met with a quiet smile from a retired dinner lady in Hillyland, who said she had been tracking prices at her local butcher’s. “Two percent? I hit that on the sausages last Tuesday. Then I hit it again on the black pudding. I’m a very efficient economy.”
Japanese central bankers spent more than a decade deploying negative interest rates, bond purchases and complicated forward guidance to coax prices upwards. Perth’s small businesses say they achieved the same effect with a sticker gun.
Economists say Japan’s achievement marks a turning point for the world’s fourth-largest economy. A Perth economist (he did Higher Economics in 1991) said it marked “a turning point for a country that’s been very patient”.
Perth has offered to send a delegation to Tokyo to share its expertise. The Bank of Japan has politely declined.
The real story: Business news (BBC)
Letters to the Editor
The views expressed are those of the reader, and frankly that's on them.
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Two percent. Pfft. The price of a pie at the football’s up 40% since I was a girl.
— Nan J., Hillyland, 30 October 2026 -
Japan should’ve just called Perth butchers. Sorted in a week.
— Steve G., Perth, 30 October 2026
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