BOJ governor remarks douse chances of policy tweak in Jan -economists: Reuters poll
By Satoshi Sugiyama
TOKYO (Reuters) — Any prospects the Bank of Japan (BOJ) will end its negative interest rate policy this month have been extinguished, economists said unanimously in a Reuters poll, citing the central bank chief's recent dovish comments.
That reflects the growing market view that a departure from the country's ultra-loose monetary settings, a global outlier, requires patience as the BOJ assesses the impact from a Jan. 1 earthquake on the Noto peninsula and trends on wage hikes among Japanese companies.
None of the 29 economists in the Jan. 9-16 poll said the BOJ would ditch the policy setting Japan's short-term deposit rate at minus 0.1% at a meeting next week. That was down from 14%, or four of 28 economists, who expected a change in a December survey.
Only one economist, at JPMorgan, saw a possibility the BOJ might begin unwinding the accommodative monetary regime in January by tweaking its forward guidance.
BOJ Governor Kazuo Ueda told public broadcaster NHK last month he was not rushing to break away from the ultra-loose monetary policy, pointing out the risk of inflation accelerating and running well above 2% was small.
In total, 82% of economists predicted in their end-quarter forecasts the negative rate policy would be over by end-2024, slightly down from 84% in the previous poll.
April remained as a top choice among economists for the negative rate policy to be abandoned, according to 69%, or 20 of 29, responding to an extra question.
Three chose July and another three selected 2025 or later, while two opted for March and one went with October.
About 62% of economists said the 7.6 magnitude earthquake that struck the Noto peninsula would not affect the timing of the policy change, but 14%,
Read more on investing.com
