TOKYO Global central banks may already be facing a new economic environment where inflation will no longer revert to the low levels of the past, Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda said on Wednesday.

"It may be difficult to deny the possibility that we are already in a new normal that is different from the period of 'low for long' (inflation)," Ueda said in opening remarks at an annual academic conference hosted by the BOJ.

(Reporting by Leika Kihara; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)