MNI BRIEF: BOJ Minutes: Board Shares Solid CPI View; Wages Key

Bank of Japan board members see inflation expectations rising and maintained that higher wages remain the key to meet the 2% sustained target, the minutes of the Jan 17-18 policy meeting released on Thursday showed.

“Members shared the view that the increase in actual inflation was expected to lead to a rise in households' and firms' medium- to long term inflation expectations through the adaptive formation mechanism and thereby encourage further price rises,” the minutes showed, see: MNI STATE OF PLAY: BOJ Kuroda: No Policy Change If CPI Hits 2%.

“There was a possibility that the year-on-year rate of change in the CPI would reach around 1.5% temporarily in the first half of 2022,” one member said, adding that "inflation momentum being maintained depended on developments in wage inflation and medium- to long-term inflation expectations.”