Bank of Japan December meeting minutes: Agreed to patiently maintain easy policy

<p>Earlier from Japan:</p><ul><li><a href="https://www.forexlive.com/news/tokyo-area-cpi-data-for-january-16-prior-24-20240125/" target="_blank" rel="follow" data-article-link="true">Tokyo area CPI data for January +1.6% (prior 2.4%)</a></li></ul><p>From the minutes, Headlines via Reuters:</p><ul><li>
Members agreed must patiently maintain easy policy</li><li>Many members said
must confirm positive wage-inflation cycle in order to consider
ending negative rates, YCC</li><li>A few members said
decision on whether positive wage-inflation cycle is in place must be
made comprehensively, not at looking at particular data</li><li>A few members said
don't see risk of BOJ being behind-the-curve, can wait for
developments in this spring's annual wage talks</li><li>One member said even
if wage hikes in 2024 overshoot expectations, risk of trend inflation
sharply deviating 2% was small</li><li>One member said
japan's inflationary pressure subsiding, important to carefully
scrutinise wage, price moves</li><li>One member said BOJ
can spend ample time determining wage-inflation cycle as it has
already addressed side-effects of YCC</li><li>One member said
timing to normalise monetary policy was nearing</li><li>One member said BOJ
must not miss opportunity to change policy to prevent rising
inflation from hurting consumption</li><li>This member said
risk of inflation rising too much and requiring sharp monetary
tightening was small, but if this happens the cost would be enormous</li><li>Members agreed what
means, and what order, BOJ would end negative rates and YCC must be
decided looking at economy, price, market moves at the time</li></ul><p>Full text is here:</p><ul><li><a href="https://www.boj.or.jp/en/mopo/mpmsche_minu/minu_2023/g231219.pdf" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Minutes of the
Monetary Policy Meeting
on December 18 and 19, 2023</a></li></ul><p>Collapsing inflation will be a conundrum for Bank of Japan Governor Ueda.</p>

This article was written by Eamonn Sheridan at www.forexlive.com.