Bank of Japan 'Summary of Opinions' for the October meeting
- this pre-empts the minutes of the meeting by many, many weeks - the minutes for this meeting will be published December 22
Summary points via Reuters:
- Japan's economy is expected to develop more clearly in the first half of next year, but it must be wary of risks such as persistent supply shortages and an offshore recession
- Japan's economy is expected to gradually strengthen as pent-up demand materialises
- China's economic development will be closely monitored to see if it will slow further due to supply restrictions and power shortages
- growing energy costs and rising corporate inflation forecasts are anticipated to exacerbate inflationary pressures
- the BOJ wants to scrutinise surveys including the December BOJ Tankan report to see whether improvements in corporate funding is broadening
- BOJ must maintain easy monetary policy to help improve the output gap and allow to pass costs on to households more smoothly
- the BOPJ must communicate clearly it has absolutely no reason to tweak current easy policy as inflation is still short of it starget
- recent yen weakness reflects differential in inflation, monetary policy stance between Japan and other countries
- must look at various transmission channels in debating weak yen impact on economy
Interesting from the Bank of Japan on the yen weakness - what they say makes sense re divergent monetary policies soon to be ahead.