BoJ’s Uchida: Japan’s economy has recovered moderately

Bank of Japan Deputy Governor Shinichi Uchida said on Wednesday that Japan's economy has recovered moderately, although some weakness has been seen in parts.

 Key quotes

Japan's economy has recovered moderately, although some weakness has been seen in parts.
Japan's economic growth is likely to moderate due to the effects of trade and other policies.
Uncertainty surrounding trade policies remains extremely high.
It is important to maintain loose monetary policy to support the economy.
We expect to raise interest rates in line with economic and price improvements, if our scenario is realised.
We will judge whether the economy and prices move in line with our forecast without any pre-set idea.
It is likely that Japan's economic growth will moderate and underlying inflation will be sluggish temporarily.
It is hard to say from current data how trade talks will turn out, or which direction domestic and overseas economies and markets will move.
Overseas and Japanese economies appear to be at a critical point, with very high uncertainty.
Economic uncertainties are likely to act as downside risks to inflation.
Cost-push factors are pushing up inflation, mainly for food prices.
There are high uncertainties over Japan's economy, and risks are skewed to the downside.
The direct impact of U.S. tariff hikes on Japanese firms is likely to first appear in export profitability or export volume.
We will scrutinise how such downside and upside risks affect our price outlook via corporate wage and price-setting behaviour.
We must adjust monetary policy to best balance upside and downside risks from the perspective of maintaining economic and price stability.
The BoJ aims to take an orthodox, robust monetary policy approach, especially because uncertainty is extremely high.
It is important to firmly support economic activity by maintaining accommodative financial conditions.
Large-scale monetary easing was a necessary policy, but there is no such thing as a free lunch.
Only when the BoJ makes a successful exit can it be judged that our monetary easing had a positive effect on Japan's economy.
Medium and long-term inflation expectations are gradually heightening.
Medium and long-term inflation expectations are expected to continue rising but may slow temporarily before picking up again.
Close attention is warranted on the direct trade impact on business fixed investment and private consumption.
Consumer inflation is overshooting our expectations as food price hikes broaden beyond rice.
Recent food price trends suggest corporate price-setting behaviour appears to be changing.
Core consumer inflation may briefly dip below 2% toward the next fiscal year but is expected to gradually re-accelerate thereafter.

Market reaction  

At the press time, the USD/JPY pair is down 0.02% on the day to trade at 146.58.