BOJ: Japan’s real interest rate is still very low – Kazuo Ueda

The governor of the Bank of Japan, Kazuo Ueda, said Thursday that Japan’s real interest rates remain very low. Ueda also declared that the Central Bank will increase the rate if the economic perspective is achieved.

Outstanding comments

Japan’s economy is recovering moderately, although with some weak signals.
The economy of Japan, with prices moving approximately in line with our forecasts, but we must be attentive to the growing uncertainty, including the commercial policy of each country.
Japan’s financial system maintains stability as a whole.
The real interest rates of Japan are still very low.
The BOJ is expected to continue increasing interest rates if the economy and prices move in line with the projections made in our quarterly report.
We will examine at each policy meeting without any preconceived idea about whether the economy is moving in line with our forecasts.

Market reaction

At the time of writing, the USD/JPY is quoting 0.47% higher in the day, to quote in 142.57.

Japan Faqs Bank


The Bank of Japan (BOJ) is the Japanese Central Bank, which sets the country’s monetary policy. Its mandate is to issue tickets and carry out monetary and foreign exchange control to guarantee the stability of prices, which means an inflation objective around 2%.


The Bank of Japan has embarked on an ultralaxa monetary policy since 2013 in order to stimulate the economy and feed inflation in the middle of a low inflation environment. The bank’s policy is based on the Quantitative and Qualitative Easing (QQE), or ticket printing to buy assets such as state or business bonds to provide liquidity. In 2016, the Bank redoubled its strategy and relaxed even more policy by introducing negative interest rates and then directly controlling the performance of its state bonds to 10 years.


The massive stimulus of the Bank of Japan has caused the depreciation of the Yen in front of its main monetary peers. This process has been more recently exacerbated due to a growing divergence of policies between the Bank of Japan and other main central banks, which have chosen to abruptly increase interest rates to combat inflation levels that have been in historical maximums. Japan Bank’s policy to maintain low types has caused an increase in differential with other currencies, dragging the value of YEN.


The weakness of the YEN and the rebound in world energy prices have caused an increase in Japanese inflation, which has exceeded the 2% objective set by the Bank of Japan. Even so, the Bank of Japan judges that the sustainable and stable achievement of the 2%objective is not yet glimpsed, so an abrupt change of current monetary policy seems unlikely.

Source: Fx Street

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