BoJ's Ueda: Japan's economy recovering moderately albeit with some weakness
Bank of Japan (BoJ) Governor Kazuo Ueda is addressing a press conference on Friday, explaining the central bank’s decision to hike the short-term interest rate from 0.5% to 0.75% following its December monetary policy review meeting.
Additional quotes
Japan's economy recovering moderately albeit with some weakness.
On Shunto, firms will continue to raise wages steadily next year.
Low risk expected regarding firm's active wage-setting behavior being interrupted.
On US economy, trade policies: uncertainties remain but have declined.
Real interest rates are expected to remain at significantly low levels.
Easy monetary conditions will support economy.
Will continue to raise policy rate if economy, prices move in line with forecast, in accordance with improvements in economy, prices.
US private consumption remains firm.
Overall downside risk to economy subsiding.
US tariff impact not spilling over Japan economy at large.
Looking at the BoJ Tankan data, uncertainty over corporate earnings outlook has receded vs 3 months ago.
Highly likely that wage rises next year will be as strong as last year.
Pace of monetary adjustment will depend on economic, price, financial outlook.
Still have wide range on neutral rate estimate.
Not only relationship between short-term and natural rates but need to check real rates, lending trends.
Will keep exploring where neutral rate lies while looking at how economy and prices respond to changes in rates.
No special meaning to 30-year high level in short-term rates.
Will closely look at impact of latest rate change.
Still some distance to lower end of range of neutral rate.
Not seeing strong tightening effecting following past rate hikes.
Haven't seen very large impact from monetary tightening so far.
Not seeing strong tightening effecting following past rate hikes.
Will make decision on rate hike after checking impact on economy, prices of raising rate to 0.75%.
We have high-frequency data on impact on financial environment.
Several board members suggested recent weak Yen possibly affecting underlying inflation.
Concept of neutral rate important in framework of monetary policy.
Plan to revise neutral rate estimate if and when possible.
Don't expect to be able to provide a much narrower range for neutral rate right away.
We released estimates on neutral rate following moves by overseas central banks.
Have good communication with Finance Minister Katayama.
Will continue to work more closely with the government.
Policy focuses on underlying inflation, when asked about possibilities of rate hike even headline inflation subsides.
Rate hike is 'indeed possible' if wage rises wold continue to spill out to prices.
Underlying inflation would not come down if wages rise.
Japan economy in state of inflation in terms of headline, underlying inflation rates above 0%.
Market reaction
USD/JPY trims gains following these comments. The pair was last seen trading 0.26% higher on the day near 156.00.
Japanese Yen Price Today
The table below shows the percentage change of Japanese Yen (JPY) against listed major currencies today. Japanese Yen was the weakest against the British Pound.
| USD | EUR | GBP | JPY | CAD | AUD | NZD | CHF | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| USD | 0.02% | -0.01% | 0.16% | 0.08% | 0.03% | 0.16% | 0.09% | |
| EUR | -0.02% | -0.03% | 0.18% | 0.06% | 0.02% | 0.15% | 0.07% | |
| GBP | 0.01% | 0.03% | 0.21% | 0.12% | 0.04% | 0.17% | 0.10% | |
| JPY | -0.16% | -0.18% | -0.21% | -0.09% | -0.14% | -0.02% | -0.09% | |
| CAD | -0.08% | -0.06% | -0.12% | 0.09% | -0.05% | 0.06% | 0.00% | |
| AUD | -0.03% | -0.02% | -0.04% | 0.14% | 0.05% | 0.13% | 0.06% | |
| NZD | -0.16% | -0.15% | -0.17% | 0.02% | -0.06% | -0.13% | -0.07% | |
| CHF | -0.09% | -0.07% | -0.10% | 0.09% | -0.01% | -0.06% | 0.07% |
The heat map shows percentage changes of major currencies against each other. The base currency is picked from the left column, while the quote currency is picked from the top row. For example, if you pick the Japanese Yen from the left column and move along the horizontal line to the US Dollar, the percentage change displayed in the box will represent JPY (base)/USD (quote).
Author
Dhwani Mehta
FXStreet
Residing in Mumbai (India), Dhwani is a Senior Analyst and Manager of the Asian session at FXStreet. She has over 10 years of experience in analyzing and covering the global financial markets, with specialization in Forex and commodities markets.
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