Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda comments was reported with Japanese media, public broadcaster NHK, on Wednesday.
His remarks didn’t contain any surprises:
- said he was in no hurry to unwind ultra-loose monetary policy
- cited the risk of inflation running well above 2% and accelerating was only small
Ueda is looking forward to the Bank’s regional branch managers’ meeting in the middle of next month, saying it would deliver “quite a lot of information”. On the prospect of a policy shift at the January 22 – 23 meeting:
- “For now, I don’t think the chance of this happening is large”
More:
- desirable for wages to rise next year at around the same pace as this year “or somewhat faster”
- BOJ will be assessing to what extent firms pass on higher labour costs to services customers
- not quite convinced yet that Japan can foresee inflation sustainably achieving the BOJ’s 2% target
- the chance of moving short-term interest rates out of negative territory next year “was not zero”
- key factor would be whether wage hikes will broaden to smaller firms in 2024’s annual spring wage negotiations, but the BOJ could decide even before the smaller firms’ wage talk outcome becomes available, if their profits turn out to be very strong
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