TOKYO (Reuters) -Japan is unlikely to see inflation hitting a central bank target of 2%, even accounting for rising energy costs, Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said on Thursday, making the case for keeping monetary policy ultra-easy.

Electric-car maker Tesla Inc delayed a more than $1 billion offering of bonds backed by leases on its electric vehicles, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday.

Shenzhen city in China, a key technology and manufacturing hub that had halted operations of companies to tackle rising COVID-19 cases, will allow them to resume work and production in an orderly manner, a local government official said on Thursday.

As war in Ukraine drives up already high input costs, even firms with business models fine-tuned to Japan's deflationary economy are toying with higher prices, testing acceptance by consumers hardened by repeated affirmations of an elusive inflation goal.

Japanese households accumulated a record $17 trillion in financial assets as of December last year, roughly four times the size of its economy, as the COVID-19 pandemic kept consumers housebound, saving their money instead of spending it.

Japan's core machinery orders slipped for the first time in five months in January, a worrying sign for an economy already facing heightened pressure from the Ukraine war and high energy and raw material prices.