The confirmation hearing for the BOJ deputy governor nominees at the upper house in parliament begins, first up is Masazumi Wakatabe
- Continuing regime is key to beat deflation
- Needs to avoid premature policy change
- There are risks associated to ending stimulus too soon
- Have seen improvement in BOJ performance under Kuroda
- 2014 sales tax hike has had negative impact on the economy
- No preconception of what sort of policy is needed
- Doesn't have a preset idea on whether or not more easing is required
- BOJ has various tools if it were to ease policy, but coming up with a new policy framework is also a possibility
I don't expect anything new from Wakatabe, or from Amamiya when he speaks later as well. It'll pretty much be a repeat of their comments from two days ago at the lower house confirmation hearing.
The headlines for those comments can be found here.
So far nothing substantial from Wakatabe, he's talking a lot on the government's relationship with the central bank and his background - likely wanting to make his case to be appointed. Only thing of note so far is that he said crafting new policy in terms of easing remains an option for the BOJ.
