Ishiba in call for loose monetary policy

Gaining ground: An employee handles sheets of newly-designed yen banknotes in Tokyo. The currency, which fell last Friday on news that a dovish rival would join Ishiba in a run-off for the LDP leadership, rebounded on his victory. — Bloomberg

TOKYO: Japan’s incoming prime minister, Shigeru Ishiba, says the country’s monetary policy must remain accommodative as a trend, signalling the need to keep borrowing costs low to underpin a fragile economic recovery.

It was not immediately clear whether Ishiba, who had been a vocal critic of the Bank of Japan’s (BoJ) past aggressive monetary easing, was taking a more dovish line with his remarks.