- Bank of Japan ‘Summary of Opinions’ from the April 2022 policy meeting
Bank of Japan summary, Headlines via Reuters:
- weak yen is positive for economy when output gap is still big, trend inflation is very low
- must be vigilant to chance of unexpected tail risk triggered by Ukraine crisis
- Japan’s inflation excluding energy remains very low, situation different from US, Europe
- Japan’s consumer inflation likely to move around 2% for time being from April, but price rise exceeding 2% won’t be sustainable
- hard to achieve the BOJ 2% inflation target as the expected rise in inflation is driven by temporary factors
- its crucial that wage hikes, being seen at present by big firms, to spread to small firms in order for broader wages & inflation to rise sustainably
- this is a risk prices may come under downward pressure if medium & long term inflation expectations do not rise sufficiently
- the Bank of Japan much continue to support the economy with its current powerful monetary easing
The April meeting was notable for Kuroda dismissing critics of the weak yen and BOJ easy polices.