Japan’s top FX diplomat: Inflation, wage gains overshooting expectations
2023.07.23 19:56
© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Japan’s vice minister of finance for international affairs, Masato Kanda, poses for a photograph during an interview with Reuters at the Finance Ministry in Tokyo, Japan January 31, 2022. Picture taken January 31, 2022. REUTERS/Issei Kato
By Tetsushi Kajimoto
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s top currency diplomat Masato Kanda said on Monday recent inflation and wage rises were overshooting expectations, suggesting that corporate wage-setting behaviours were changing.
The central bank is likely to revise up its inflation forecasts at its two-day policy meeting ending on Friday, Kanda told reporters, adding that he was not in a position to comment on specific monetary policy.
Kanda, vice finance minister for international affairs, made the remarks amid simmering market speculation that creeping inflation and robust wage growth will prod the Bank of Japan (BOJ) to tweak its yield control policy this week.
On Friday, Kanda told Reuters that “various expectations and speculations are spreading about the possibility of some kind of tweak to monetary policy.”
