The Bank of Japan unanimously decided to keep interest rates at -0.10%, as expected. It adheres to the yield curve control policy, which keeps the maximum maximum yield of 10-year Japanese government bonds at 1%.
The BOJ board members lowered their forecast for core consumer price growth to 2.4% for the fiscal year 2024 starting in April, from their previous forecast of 2.8% in October last year.
At the press conference, the statements of the governor of the Bank of Japan Kazuo Ueda were as follows :-
- The Japanese economy is progressing in line with previous forecasts.
- You should carefully monitor the movements of the foreign exchange market and their impact on prices.
- We will not hesitate to take additional mitigation measures if necessary.
- We are closely monitoring the results of the spring wage negotiations.
- We want to make sure that there is a virtuous cycle of wages and prices.
- The comments of large companies are encouraging about the wage increase, as more companies decided to raise wages this year compared to last year.
- The side effects of a negative interest rate policy are undeniable.
- Further interest rate hikes are expected upon exit from the negative interest rate policy.
