BoJ released minutes of the April 26-27 meeting today. The only surprise out of that meeting was that BoJ dropped the time frame it set for achieving the 2% inflation target. The minutes provided more details on the discussions. Many members believed that the timing of reaching the 2% inflation was “merely a projection”. At the some time, “some market participants perceived this projection as a deadline for achieving 2 percent inflation, linking changes in said timing to policy adjustments, and this view was deeply entrenched among them.”
Some members expressed that “attracting excessive attention merely to forecast figures would not be appropriate from the perspective of communication with the markets”. And, most members expressed that ” it was appropriate to cease providing a description on the projected timing of achieving the price stability target”. And that was with the aim to clarify that the timing was “not a specific deadline” for meeting inflation target. Nonetheless, one member expressed the concern that dropping the time frame could “weaken the effects of the commitment” of BoJ to hit target.
