Uncertainties over Trump tariffs extremely strong, BOJ chief says
Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda said Tuesday that uncertainties over high tariffs imposed by the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump remain extremely strong.
Business and household sentiments "have deteriorated recently," Ueda said at an event hosted by the Research Institute of Japan, a Jiji Press affiliate, in Tokyo.
On the central bank's monetary policy moves going forward, Ueda said that the BOJ will continue to raise interest rates if the Japanese economy and prices move in line with the bank's outlook.
The BOJ, in a quarterly report released May 1, pushed back its projected timing of achieving its 2% inflation target by about a year to the second half of the report's projection period through fiscal 2027.
Since then, there have been some positive developments on the trade front, especially with the U.S. and Chinese governments agreeing to reduce tariffs.
Still, Ueda said that "there remains high uncertainty regarding economic activity and prices at home and abroad."
Despite that, he said that "nascent developments" toward achieving the BOJ's 2% price target "have steadily gained momentum."
"Japan's economy will be able to withstand such downward pressure" from the Trump tariffs, he said. "The mechanism in which wages and prices rise moderately in interaction with each other will not be interrupted."
Even if the Japanese economy experiences a standstill, there is no change in the general direction of the bank's outlook that underlying consumer price index inflation is expected to increase gradually toward 2%, he said.
In a question-and-answer session, Ueda said that the BOJ will "continue to monitor market trends carefully" following recent jumps in yields on superlong Japanese government bonds (JGBs).
The bank, in its next policy-setting meeting from June 16, plans to consider a plan to reduce its JGB purchases from April 2026.
"We'll make an appropriate decision while assessing market trends and functionality," he said.
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