BOJ's Funo says won't ease in response to short-term price falls - Nikkei

TOKYO (Reuters) - Bank of Japan board member Yukitoshi Funo said the central bank will look at the long-term economic trend in guiding monetary policy and won't expand stimulus automatically in response to short-term dips in prices, according to the Nikkei newspaper.

Funo, a former executive of Toyota Motor Corp who joined the nine-member board in July, also said Japan is on track to meet the central bank's 2 percent inflation target as companies are steadily raising prices of their goods.

"We're seeing fewer companies offer discounts and examples like these, which do not clearly appear in price indices, are pushing up corporate profits," Funo told Nikkei in an interview published on Tuesday.

Funo said the BOJ should look at various information, not just a specific economic or price indicator, in judging whether additional monetary easing was necessary.

"The BOJ doesn't necessarily need to ease policy in response to short-term moves in financial markets," he said. "It won't ease just because one indicator, such as the core consumer price index, fell by a certain degree."

(Reporting by Leika Kihara; Editing by Richard Borsuk)