BoJ board member Makoto Sakurai, warned in a speech, “in guiding monetary policy, there’s an increasing need to be mindful of the side-effect of continuing our low-rate policy such as that on Japan’s banking system.”
“If there’s a crisis that could disrupt Japan’s financial system,” he noted, “a bold policy response is necessary”. However, ” if the overseas slowdown driven by trade woes is moderate, and the speed at which it affects Japan’s economy is slow, we have room to scrutinise economic indicators in deciding on policy”.
He added, “the next half-year is when we need to carefully scrutinise economic developments”, including the impact of sales tax hike and global slowdown.