Watching U.S., European Monetary Policies “Very Carefully”: BOJ Ueda

Jiji Press

15:33 JST, October 24, 2024

Washington (Jiji Press)—Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda said Wednesday that the BOJ is watching monetary policies in the United States and Europe “very carefully” in forecasting economic and price trends in Japan.

Monetary policy changes in other countries could sometimes have “significant effects” on Japan’s economy and inflation, he said at an event held by the International Monetary Fund in Washington.

His remarks came at a time when the BOJ has begun to raise interest rates while the central banks in the United States and Europe are moving for monetary easing.

“We’ve been, for the last couple of months, worried about what might happen to the U.S. economy going forward,” Ueda said, noting that U.S. employment data “have been moving around” and that the BOJ has therefore “yet to determine what the medium-term trend is” for the world’s biggest economy.

Stock prices showed wild fluctuations after the BOJ’s Policy Board decided an interest rate hike in late July. On this, Ueda stated, “I could say that there was a period in July, where there was no communication, explicit or formal communication, between board members and the market or the media.”

“It’s still taking time for us to get to 2 pct inflation (in Japan) in a sustainable manner,” Ueda said.