David Li would appear to be too hasty to dismiss Japan's bold new economic policy ("Abenomics will only damage Japan's neighbours", May 22). In particular, it would seem far too early for him to conclude that Abenomics will not extricate Japan from its deflationary mire or to surmise that it will fail to jumpstart the Japanese economy.

In pointing to the fact that Japanese inflation is yet to show any marked pick-up, Mr. Li glosses over the dramatic change that has occurred in long-run Japanese inflationary expectations since the launch of Abenomics. This change is reflected in all the standard measures of such expectations. As an example, since the beginning of this year, inflation expectations as measured by the difference between five-year Japanese Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities and JGBs has increased from no inflation to an expected inflation rate of more than 1¾ per cent a year over the next five years.

Mr. Li is most likely correct to expect that Japan's weaker currency policy will get pushback from its Asian neighbours. However, the same would not appear to be the case with Japan's US and European trade partners. At the recent Group of Eight meeting, Japan was effectively given the green light to continue with its policy of aggressive quantitative easing that has seen further significant yen depreciation. Considering that it generally takes at least a year for the full impact of a currency depreciation to be felt, one has to expect that, in the months ahead, the Japanese economy will get a big boost from the 25 per cent effective Japanese yen depreciation to date.