what happened?At the end of last year, before the Bank of Japan shocked the world, it was urgently suspended by the government
News from the Financial Associated Press, January 23 (edited by Shi Zhengcheng)The Bank of Japan disclosed the minutes of its monetary policy meeting in December last year on Monday, and one of the details aroused the media’s strong curiosity:The Bank of Japan’s bold move once caused government representatives attending the meeting to call a halt.
As a background, following the policy meeting on December 19-20 last year, although the Bank of Japan decided to continue the policy rate of -0.1%, it unexpectedly doubled the control range of the ten-year government bond yield from ±0.25%, triggering global Financial markets were in an uproar. Previously, the market generally expected that the Bank of Japan is unlikely to adjust the yield curve control policy before Governor Haruhiko Kuroda, a believer in “Abenomics”, resigns in early April.
This change not only caught the market by surprise, but also revealed from the minutes of the meeting released today that the Japanese government may not have known regarding it in advance.
(Source: Bank of Japan Monetary Policy Minutes) According to the minutes,On the eve of the Bank of Japan’s nine-member Monetary Policy Committee voting, representatives of the Japanese government who attended the meeting urgently requested an adjournment and obtained approval from Haruhiko Kuroda. As a result, the Bank of Japan’s monetary policy meeting was interrupted for more than 30 minutes before lunch.
According to past meeting minutes, this was the only time a government representative requested a moratorium last year. In the past, representatives of the Japanese government would only ask for a pause in the face of major policy changes, such as when the Bank of Japan introduced negative interest rates in January 2016.
In the Bank of Japan’s monetary policy meeting, Japan’s Ministry of Finance and the Cabinet will each appoint a representative to attend. They do not have voting rights and mainly convey their respective institutions’ views on monetary policy. According to Japanese media analysis,This move also means that the representatives of the Japanese government have no expectation of adjusting the yield curve control policy, so they need to report to their respective agencies and adjust the government’s attitude and position according to the situation.
According to the minutes of the meeting, the final two representatives did not express their opposition to the adjustment of monetary policy. A representative of the Ministry of Finance of Japan stated that,The government understands the issues discussed today and aims to implement monetary easing in a more sustainable manner to achieve the BoJ’s price target. A representative of the Japanese cabinet said,BOJ remains wary of impact of rising inflation, supply constraints and market volatility on Japan’s economy。
The focus turns to the biggest suspense regarding the new election
For the policy of the Bank of Japan, the resignation of Governor Haruhiko Kuroda will be the next important time node, whileHis successor might be confirmed as soon as mid-February。
In a program broadcast on TV Tokyo last Sunday, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said,Nominations for the next BOJ leadership are likely to be formally submitted for consideration in February, according to the Diet’s agenda。
Haruhiko Kuroda’s term will expire in early April, while the BOJ’s two deputy governors, Masayoshi Amamiya and Masazumi Wakatabe, will expire on March 19. According to the schedule, the Bank of Japan will hold its next monetary policy meeting on March 9-10, which will also be the last time this team will make a decision on Japan’s monetary policy.
Regarding the selection of the next governor of the Bank of Japan, Katsura Okada, the director-general of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party of Japan, also emphasized in an interview last Sunday that before choosing a successor, it is first necessary to conduct a thorough review of “Abenomics” instead of Election of a new governor is ambiguous.