The Bank of Japan signaled the need for further increases to the benchmark interest rate in a summary of opinions from last week¡¯s board meeting, when authorities raised the policy rate to the highest since 1995.
¡°As for the future conduct of monetary policy, given that underlying CPI (consumer price index) inflation has been approaching 2% and financial conditions have been accommodative, it is appropriate for the bank to continue to raise the policy interest rate¡± in response to economy, inflation and financial conditions, one of nine board members said, according to a summary of the June 15-16 meeting released Wednesday.
The BOJ hiked its policy rate for the first time since December last week. While the bank made it clear at the time that it would continue to push the rate higher, the summary didn¡¯t offer any clear hints on the likely timing of the next move.
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