BOJ Official Wanted Continued Rate Increases: Minutes

Tokyo, Sept. 25 (Jiji Press)–A Bank of Japan official called on the central bank to continue to raise interest rates at a monetary policy meeting in July, according to the minutes of the meeting released on Thursday. A member of the BOJ’s Policy Board said at the July 30-31 meeting that the central bank “should continue to raise the policy interest rate when possible,” the minutes showed. The BOJ last raised its policy rate in January, to 0.5 pct. Many board members welcomed a trade agreement that Japan and the United States struck on July 22, saying the deal “represented great progress and would lead to reduced uncertainty regarding Japan’s economy,” the minutes showed. Some board members said that the direct impact of U.S. tariffs on the Japanese economy “might not be so significant,” pointing out that Japanese firms were not necessarily at a disadvantage relative to overseas firms in terms of tariff rates. But a board member said that “at least two to three more months” were needed to assess the impact of the U.S. tariffs. The minutes showed that a board member called on the BOJ to “make policy decisions when more data was available.” But a board member said that the BOJ “should not become overly cautious and miss the opportunity to raise the policy interest rate.” Another board member pointed out that the BOJ could “exit from its current wait-and-see stance, perhaps by the end of 2025 at the earliest,” as the downward effects of the U.S. tariffs on the Japanese economy were likely to remain minimal. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]