By Leika Kihara
TOKYO, Nov 10 (Reuters) – Some Bank of Japan policymakers called for speeding up the pace of interest rate hikes as underlying inflation reached the central bank’s 2% target, a summary of opinions at its October meeting showed on Tuesday.
“The effects of past rate hikes have yet to materialise and financial conditions remain accommodative. Japan is in a new phase where the BOJ needs to step up the pace of bringing its policy rate to neutral,” one member was quoted as saying.
Two other opinions from the nine-member board called for raising the bank’s policy rate to a level deemed neutral to the economy soon, the summary showed.
At the meeting on October 29 and 30, the bank kept its key rate at 1.25% but declared victory in its 14-year battle to hit its price target and flagged upside price risk, reinforcing its hawkish bias.
(Reporting by Leika Kihara; Editing by Tom Hogue and Christopher Cushing)
