The Bank of Japan released the minutes of its July monetary policy meeting, with several members expressing support for accelerating the pace of rate hikes. Some members, however, took a cautious view that the pace and timing could not be determined in advance.
The Bank of Japan released the minutes of its July monetary policy meeting. Members shared the view that it was important to keep underlying inflation stable without allowing it to rise above 2%, and discussed developments in prices and the economy.
Several members expressed support for accelerating the pace of rate hikes. Although the market expects a pace of roughly once every 6 months, some members said hikes could come sooner than expected depending on economic, price and financial conditions.
Several other members took a cautious stance, saying that the specific pace and timing of rate hikes should not be determined in advance. While carefully explaining the conduct of policy was considered important, decisions were said to involve uncertainty.
The Bank of Japan decided to leave rates unchanged at its July meeting, while it decided at its September meeting to raise them from around 1% to around 1.25%, putting the focus on an additional rate hike before year-end.