Bank of Japan board member Hajime Takata said the time is ripe for raising the bank’s policy interest rate, looking past political instability to reiterate his conviction after he dissented from a decision to hold policy steady last month.
“I believe that now is a prime opportunity to raise the policy interest rate,” Takata said Monday in a speech to local business leaders in Hiroshima. “The once deeply entrenched norm has waned in Japan, that the price stability target has been almost achieved.”
Takata noted in his first speech after his rate hike proposal the importance of addressing inflation levels that have exceeded the BOJ’s target for more than three years. His comments indicate his unflinching support for a higher rate even as it has become increasingly likely that Sanae Takaichi, an advocate of monetary easing, will become Japan’s next prime minister this week.
BOJ board hawk calls for rate hike as Japan’s price norm shifts
