BOJ nominee: inflation target would keep prices low

TOKYO, March 11 (Reuters) - A nominee for deputy governor of the Bank of Japan, Takatoshi Ito, said on Tuesday that an inflation target would be aimed at keeping prices low and stable and would not be aimed at triggering inflation.

Ito also told a lower house hearing for candidates of the next BOJ governor and deputy governors that it was hard to cope with stagflation through monetary policy.

The government has nominated Ito, an economics professor at University of Tokyo and a member of the government's top economic council, as deputy governor.

Current Governor Toshihiko Fukui and his two deputies, Toshiro Muto and Kazumasa Iwata, retire on March 19. (Reporting by Leika Kihara and Yoko Nishikawa)