An IMF researcher on Tuesday used Japan's chronic deflation to defend raising inflation targets, as suggested by Fund chief economist Olivier Blanchard in a recent paper which has come under fire from leading central bankers.

Daniel Leigh, a research economist at the organisation, said evidence from Japan supported the notion of raising inflation targets to give central banks room to make further cuts in times of need - during the recent crisis, for example - was a sound one, in a column for Vo