The central bank has kept in place since March 2001 its quantitative easing, which anchors short-term interest rates near zero and floods Japan's financial system with excess cash. But the BOJ has said that it expects Japan's core consumer price index to start rising, signaling an end to deflation. In the past, Fukui wouldn't rule out ending the quantitative easing before April, but many analysts expect a policy change in the second quarter. A number of government officials, including Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, have spoken out in recent weeks against an early end to the central bank's loose policy. Fukui defended the BOJ's independence and indicated the central bank won't alter its course to end the policy. But he stressed the BOJ will be cautious about any policy move. "Timing is the most important thing - neither too early nor too late. If there is an error there, the payback would be large," he said, according to the newspaper. "If we were to continue the quantitative easing indefinitely regardless of economic recovery, there would be a large reaction, such as a surge in long-term interest rates." Reiterating the BOJ's forecast that consumer prices will start to rise by the end of year, Fukui said that the BOJ "would like to take a while to judge whether this situation will continue stably...We want to thoroughly check again, based not only on the developments in the consumer price index but on the sustainability of economic recovery." "Our assumption is an economy in which it is very difficult for consumer prices to rise, so we aren't thinking of needlessly raising interest rates or tightening" policy, he said. Fukui reiterated that there is no split between the BOJ and the government. "There's no way we would have a fundamental disagreement with the government on the issue of pursuing sustainable economy recovery with price stability," he said.