this time, we talk with haruhiko kuroda, the governor of the bank of japan. in april last year, kuroda unleashed the boldest round of stimulus the country has seen. it's commonly referred to as quantitative and qualitative easing or qqe. he plans to drag japan out of deflation by changing the way business leaders and consumers act. he toeps to create a growth where rising prices of goods deliver more profits to firms that will hopefully lead to better wages, more spending, higher prices and ultimately revive the economy. nhk senior commentator spoke with him about his policy and outlook for the economy. >> reporter: kuroda became governor at the bank in march last year. previously, he was vice minister for international affairs at japan's finance ministry and governor of the asian development bank. we asked kuroda to give his take on the state of economy right now. >> the third quarter gdp figure was slight negative, negative growth. why the third quarter gdp growth was negative, partly because of weak recovery of consumption, but mainly because of substantia

boj governor haruhiko kuroda held a news conference after the policy meeting. >> translator: we've seen the positive effects of additional monetary easing. as a result, the deflationary mind-set is improving. and we think it will continue to improve. we are sticking to our stance of achieving an inflation target of 2% as soon as possible. >> kuroda also referred to the sharp plunge of russia's ruble. he says the impact on the economy will be relatively small as japan's trade and investment with russia is lower compared to europe. he said a repeat of the 1998 currency crisis is unthinkable, because russia now has a huge amount of foreign reserves. >>> investors went on a buying spree today after the federal reserve pledged to keep u.s. interest rates unchanged for now. in asia, all major markets ended in positive territory as you can see there. australian shares surged 2.45%. the biggest one-day gain since july 2013. tokyo's nikkei added 2.4%. investors took heart from the boj's brighter view on exports and production. now major benchmarks across europe opened higher on friday. they're a