BOJ Ueda: Japan Increasingly Likely to Hit Inflation Target

Jiji Press

16:54 JST, November 6, 2023

NAGOYA (Jiji Press) — Japan is increasingly likely to achieve the Bank of Japan’s 2% inflation target, BOJ Governor Kazuo Ueda said Monday.

“The likelihood of realizing the outlook for achieving the price stability target of 2% seems to be gradually rising,” Ueda said at a speech in the central Japan city of Nagoya.

Meanwhile, he added that the central bank will maintain its monetary easing patiently because a sustainable and stable achievement of the target “is not yet envisaged with sufficient certainty at this point.”

Ueda noted that “next year’s annual spring labor-management wage negotiations are an important aspect of the examination” to determine whether the target has been achieved.

While corporate profits, which are the source of wage hikes, are at a record high on the whole, “the pace of improvement in profits varies across industries and firm sizes,” he said, adding that it is unclear whether small businesses will continue wage increases.