Japan finance minister says to coordinate with Bank of Japan to beat deflation

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso said on Friday that he was closely coordinating with the Bank of Japan to defeat deflation, adding that monetary policy was up to the central bank to decide.

Aso made the remarks when asked about commercial banks' criticism against the BOJ's negative interest rate policy for squeezing already-thin profit margins.

The BOJ meets for a rate review next week, where it will conduct a comprehensive assessment of its policies that combine negative interest rates with a massive asset-buying program.

(Reporting by Tetsushi Kajimoto; Editing by Chang-Ran Kim)

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