MNI BRIEF: BOJ Needs To Patiently Keep Easy Policy - Nakamura

Bank of Japan board member Toyoaki Nakamura said on Wednesday that the BOJ needs to patiently maintain the current easy policy without elaborating on the whether there should be a review of the policy framework.

“Japan’s economy is still on the way to recovery from post Covid-19 and the economy on average hasn’t recovered to pre-Covid-19 levels,” Nakamura told business leaders in Matsumoto City. He also said that price rises have not been accompanied by wage hikes.

Nakamura also said Japan is far from a situation where it needs to worry about a wage-price spiral, and maintaining the easy policy is necessary to support corporate activity to create an environment for firms to raise wages.

He warned that if high resource and grain prices are prolonged amid high uncertainties, Japan’s economy and overseas economies will come under pressure.

Nakamura was also worried about tightness of global financial and capital markets caused by rate hikes by many central banks.