BOJ to Discuss Ending Negative Rate Policy

Jiji Press

11:51 JST, March 18, 2024

Tokyo (Jiji Press)—Bank of Japan officials are set to meet Monday and Tuesday to discuss whether to lift the central bank’s long-held negative interest rate policy.

A decision to scrap the policy means the BOJ’s first interest rate increase since 2007.

BOJ policymakers will scrutinize whether inflation is on track to achieve the central bank’s 2 pct target in a sustainable way.

The BOJ is feeling more confident that Japan’s economy will enter a virtuous cycle of higher wages and prices, as many companies, mainly big ones, are raising wages this spring.

The central bank will end the negative rate policy if a majority of its nine policy board members, including Governor Kazuo Ueda, vote in favor of the plan.

The policymakers will also discuss abolishing the BOJ’s yield curve control, which guides key long-term interest rates to around zero pct as part of its ultraeasy monetary policy.

They will consider a plan to have the BOJ commit to continuing to buy a considerable amount of government bonds to prevent a spike in long-term interest rates.