With hindsight the April meeting was a bit of a placeholder between the rate hike (the first in 17 years) at the March meeting:
and
the meeting last week where the Bank flagged a reduction in JGB purchases to come:
We've already had the 'summary' of the April meeting:
- Bank of Japan Summary - Easy monetary conditions are expected to continue
- BOJ Summary recap - "BOJ board turned hawkish in April"
Headlines via Reuters:
- Member agreed consumption likely to increase moderately
- A few members said companies might become more active in raising prices, wages than initially expected
- Members discussed risks associated with impact of weak yen on inflation
- One member said impact of weak yen on inflation, wages may not prove temporary
- One member said weak yen could lead to overshoot in underlying inflation
- One member said the BOJ must scrutinise without any preset idea the chance firms may renew efforts to pass on rising import costs via price hikes
- Members shared view the BOJ must scrutinise how recent yen falls could affect underlying inflation
- One member said key to future monetary policy outlook would be capex, consumption
- One member said there were various upward risks to inflation
- A few members said fx is among key factors affecting economy, prices, boj must respond with monetary policy if outlook and risks change
- One member said the BOJ must respond with monetary policy if fx volatility affects firms' medium-, long-term inflation expectations
- One member said the BOJ must deepen debate on timing, degree of future interest rate hikes
- One member said the BOJ could raise rates moderately before it's sufficiently convinced about chance of durably hitting price goal, to avoid being forced to hike rates rapidly later
- One member said boj must raise rates at appropriate, timely manner to avoid causing stress on economy
- One member said there is sufficient chance pace of policy normalisation could accelerate if underlying inflation continues to overshoot due in part to weak yen
more to come