According to Summary of Opinions of July 29-30 BoJ meeting, some policymakers were clearly concerned with risks to economic outlook. And there were calls for discussions on ideas of ramping up monetary stimulus. Some economists took that as a signal that BoJ could deploy pre-emptive easing measures as soon as at the meeting next month.
In the summary, one member warned that “the BOJ must communicate more clearly its resolve to take additional monetary easing steps without hesitation if the momentum to achieve its price target is under threat”. And, “we must also consider in advance what steps we can take if we were to ease.”
Another member urged to use both interest rates and forward guidance to ease policy further. But there was also voice regarding the need to “assess the benefits and demerits of various monetary easing steps”.
