As revealed by minutes of January 22-23 BoJ meeting, “most members” believed it’s appropriate to ” persistently continue with the powerful monetary easing under the current guideline for market operations” as momentum towards 2% inflation target was maintained. Meanwhile, “many members” said it’s necessary to take account of developments of developments in economic activity, and financial conditions in a “balanced manner”.
The board also spent considerable amount of time discussing monetary policy stance in responses to downside risks. One member noted it was necessary to “devise ways to avoid a situation where an expectation that no policy change would occur for the time being would be fixed to an excessive degree in financial markets”
Another member noted that “it was not desirable to adopt a stance of not taking action until a serious crisis occurred”. This member also said “it was necessary to emphasize the Bank’s stance of taking swift, flexible, and decisive actions.”
