SENDAI, Japan, April 21 (Reuters) - Bank of Japan Deputy Governor Kiyohiko Nishimura said on Wednesday there were some positive signs indicating that Japan would escape deflation.
"It can be said that some beams of light are starting to break through a thick cloud of deflation," Nishimura said in a speech to local business leaders in Sendai, northeastern Japan.
Nishimura said that the economy had been improving since about last spring and that this is expected to spill over to prices from now on.
"There is about a one-year lag until changes in the economy affect the inflation rate," he said.
The BOJ will issue its twice-yearly outlook report on April 30, which forms a basis for its monetary policy decisions. It may say in the report that consumer prices will stop falling next fiscal year, sources said.
Nishimura, a former professor at the University of Tokyo, has voted with the majority on policy decisions and mostly toed the bank's official line on policy. (Reporting by Rie Ishiguro; Editing by Hugh Lawson)