Bank of Japan expresses zero indication of making a hawkish shift in its January discussions

January 27, 2023: The Bank of Japan emphasized that it wants to maintain its current monetary policy, which includes leaving its yield curve control unchanged; the Summary of Opinions from its previous conference is being published Thursday.

The “yield curve control” which is referring to a policy of the Japanese central bank that is designed to keep the 10-year yield on Japanese Government Bonds within 0.5 percentage points of zero. Short-term rates in Japan are negative.

“The Bank needs to continue with the present yield curve control, such as the outlook that it will be taking time to achieve the price stability target of 2 per cent sustainably and stably,” the release said, reiterating its unchanged stance on its inflation target.

The central bank is keeping up with its operations to purchase Japanese government bonds due to upward pressure on yields. This week, Nikkei reported that the BOJ disclosed holding technically over 100% of several key 10-year JGBs or running higher than the issuance amounts.

The 10-year Japanese government bond yield traded much higher on Thursday, but nearly 0.457% was still less than the upper ceiling of the central bank’s tolerance range.

“There have been upward states on long-term interest rates, and the distortions on the yield are turning have not dissipated,” the BOJ said in its Summary of Opinions, which mentions additional purchases of JGBs as one of the possible actions it takes to keep the yield curve within its expected range.

MUFG Bank’s senior currency analyst, Jeff, stated that he didn’t anticipate changes in the central bank’s stance before April when it appointed a recent governor.

“We don’t expect any changes for now. A lot will depend on, for example, the inflation data in the future months,” he said.”

Nationwide core inflation in Japan hit 4% in December, the highest annualized print from December 1981, according to data released last week.