By Leika Kihara
NAGASAKI, Japan (Reuters) -Bank of Japan (BOJ) board member Asahi Noguchi said on Thursday the central bank must patiently maintain loose monetary policy as it will take time to eradicate the public’s view that prices are not set to rise much in the future.
The comments from Noguchi, a known BOJ policy dove, come a day after Japan’s new prime minister said the economy was not ready for further interest rate hikes, in surprisingly blunt remarks that pushed the yen lower.
With inflation exceeding the BOJ’s 2% target for more than two years and nominal wages rising, Japanese firms are becoming more willing to pass on higher costs through price hikes, Noguchi said.
But sluggish real consumption suggests households still take it for granted that prices won’t rise much, having experienced decades of deflation and stagnant wage growth, said Noguchi, who voted against the BOJ’s decision to raise rates in July.
“It will take considerable time for such sentiment to dampen, and for society as a whole to shift to a mindset consistent with the BOJ’s 2% inflation target,” Noguchi said in a speech to business leaders in the southern Japanese city of Nagasaki.
“Till then, what’s most important is for the BOJ to patiently maintain an accommodative monetary environment,” he said.
The remarks followed Wednesday’s meeting between BOJ Governor Kazuo Ueda and Japan’s new Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who later said Japan was not ready for additional rate hikes.
The dollar rose 0.3% to hit a one-month high of 146.84 yen on Thursday, extending an overnight rally, due in part to receding expectations of a near-term rate hike by the BOJ.
A majority of economists polled by Reuters on Sept. 4-12 had expected the BOJ to raise rates again by year-end.
Japan’s economy expanded by an annualised 2.9% rate in the second quarter as steady wage hikes underpinned consumer spending. Capital expenditure continues to grow, though soft demand in China and slowing U.S. growth cloud the outlook for the export-reliant country.
Noguchi said consumption was expected to increase further as rising wages lift household income. Prospects of sustained wage growth were also becoming a bigger driver of service inflation, as companies brace for higher labour costs, he said.
“The BOJ will gradually adjust the degree of monetary support, while scrutinising carefully whether inflation is stabilising around 2% accompanied by wage gains,” Noguchi said.
The BOJ ended negative rates in March and raised short-term borrowing costs to 0.25% in July on the view Japan was making progress towards sustaining 2% inflation.
Ueda was forced to roll back his remarks, made when the BOJ hiked rates in July, that the bank would keep raising borrowing costs after the hawkish tone triggered a market rout.
Speaking after the meeting with Ishiba on Wednesday, Ueda said he told the premier that the BOJ would move cautiously in deciding whether to raise interest rates further.
