BOJ may wait for rate hike in talks

The Bank of Japan has discussed the potential timing of ending its negative interest rate policy, with several members indicating they are in no rush to make the move. The Bank of Japan (BOJ) board members discussed the potential timing of ending its negative interest rate policy at a meeting last week, with several members indicating they are in no rush to make the move. “Even if the bank makes a decision after seeing the progress in wage negotiations next spring, it wouldn’t be too late,” one of the nine board members said at the Dec. 18-19 meeting. The same member said there was only a small risk that core inflation could significantly exceed its 2% target. Another member said there was “sufficient room for manoeuvre” to determine whether a virtuous wage-inflation cycle had been achieved after the bank increased the flexibility of its yield curve control mechanism in October. The views are likely to help cool market speculation about whether policy makers will end the world’s latest negative interest rate regime when the BOJ meets in January. Half of economists surveyed by Bloomberg earlier this month predicted the bank would end negative interest rates in April after considering the initial results of wage talks expected in March.