Central bank raised rates in July as economy, inflation moved mostly in line with forecast

Bank of Japan (BoJ) Governor Kazuo Ueda told the Japanese parliament on Friday, “the BoJ raised rates in July as economy and inflation moved mostly in line with forecast.“

Additional quotes

No change in stance about adjusting monetary easing if economy, inflation move in line with forecast.

Recent BoJ policy decisions have been appropriate.

Showing future policy path could cause unnecessary speculation.

Rise in import prices continued longer than expected.

Weak Yen could affect BoJ’s price projections.

FX moves affect economy through various channels.

FX moves at times could affect economy, as well as risks to economic forecast.

FX moves could affect BoJ’s median forecast, in which case we will decide what would be appropriate policy response to such change in forecasts.

FX volatility could also create upside, downside risks to our forecasts, in which case we will scrutinize degree of risk to determine whether policy response needed.

Hard to promise when and in what form we can disclose Japan’s estimated neutral rate.

If we can sufficiently narrow down estimated neutral rate, we must disclose our findings to public, media, markets.

Market reaction

USD/JPY extends losses to challenge 145.50 in reaction to Governor Ueda’s comments. The pair is down 0.44% on the day.