BoJ’s Ueda tells Nikkei wage trends will drive policy moves

FILE PHOTO: Bank of Japan (BOJ) Governor Kazuo Ueda delivers a speech during a commemorative ceremony on the day the new notes of 10,000 yen, 5,000 yen and 1,000 yen went into circulation, at the BOJ headquarters in Tokyo, Japan July 3, 2024. REUTERS/Wataru Sekita/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo

JAPAN: Bank of Japan (BoJ) governor Kazuo Ueda says interest-rate hikes are “nearing” as inflation and economic trends develop in line with the central bank’s forecasts, without explicitly supporting an increase in December.

“We will adjust the degree of monetary easing at the appropriate time if we become confident or certain that the economy will move as forecasted by our economic and price outlook – particularly that the underlying inflation rises toward 2%,” Ueda said in a Nikkei interview conducted last Thursday and published last Saturday in Tokyo.