- Moderate recovery trend intact despite slowdown in capex, consumption
- Monetary policy needs to remain consistent with the real economy, financial environment
- Have not made up mind yet on monetary policy decision
- Wage hikes are broadening stronger than last year
- Need to watch outcome of spring wage talks after mid-March
His earlier comments here are certainly reverberating with the Japanese yen up 0.6% against the dollar currently. Is this the turning point whereby traders look to price in the BOJ's next steps ahead of the spring wage negotiations results in March to April? I've mentioned previously that the negative carry in USD/JPY did not incentivise traders to get in too early. So, we might be moving closer to getting around that timing-wise.