Bank of Japan (BoJ) Governor Kazuo Ueda said on Monday that delaying interest rate hike for too long could cause sharp inflation and force the central bank to make rapid policy adjustment.
Key quotes
Was able to have frank, good discussions with premier, ministers, will continue to closely communicate with the government.
Won’t elaborate on what I discussed with premier, ministers.
Want to make policy decision in December looking at wage information, as well as other data.
Delaying rate hike too long could cause sharp inflation, force us to make rapid policy adjustment.
Mix of the government’s proactive fiscal policy and the BOJ’s adjustment of monetary support will help achieve sustainable economic growth path.
Uncertainties that we had focused on, which are the U.S. tariff impact and the U.S. economic outlook, have subsided significantly compared with a few months ago.
Want to elaborate more on future rate hike path once we raise rates to 0.75%.
Want to scrutinize whether no big negative information will come out from data that were not available during the US government shutdown.
Market reaction
As of writing, the USD/JPY pair is down 0.46% on the day at 155.45.
Bank of Japan FAQs
The Bank of Japan (BoJ) is the Japanese central bank, which sets monetary policy in the country. Its mandate is to issue banknotes and carry out currency and monetary control to ensure price stability, which means an inflation target of around 2%.
The Bank of Japan embarked in an ultra-loose monetary policy in 2013 in order to stimulate the economy and fuel inflation amid a low-inflationary environment. The bank’s policy is based on Quantitative and Qualitative Easing (QQE), or printing notes to buy assets such as government or corporate bonds to provide liquidity. In 2016, the bank doubled down on its strategy and further loosened policy by first introducing negative interest rates and then directly controlling the yield of its 10-year government bonds. In March 2024, the BoJ lifted interest rates, effectively retreating from the ultra-loose monetary policy stance.
The Bank’s massive stimulus caused the Yen to depreciate against its main currency peers. This process exacerbated in 2022 and 2023 due to an increasing policy divergence between the Bank of Japan and other main central banks, which opted to increase interest rates sharply to fight decades-high levels of inflation. The BoJ’s policy led to a widening differential with other currencies, dragging down the value of the Yen. This trend partly reversed in 2024, when the BoJ decided to abandon its ultra-loose policy stance.
A weaker Yen and the spike in global energy prices led to an increase in Japanese inflation, which exceeded the BoJ’s 2% target. The prospect of rising salaries in the country – a key element fuelling inflation – also contributed to the move.