- Hiroaki Muto, senior economist at Sumitomo Mitsui Asset Management Co
The Japanese Yen fell versus the U.S. Dollar, trading at 102.04, up 0.07%, after a release of the April 30 board meeting minutes showed that there is still a continued minority that disagree concerning growth and inflation outlook. Three of nine board members proposed to separately revise growth and inflation outlook, including specifying downside risks as well as setting a timeframe for easing. Takahide Kiuchi and Takehiro Sato have repeatedly doubted that outlook for cost of living will be raised and anchored at around 2% in 2015.
All in all, the Bank of Japan appears to become more confident of achieving the 2% inflation target, as the minutes of the recent policy board meeting show that central bankers expect the nation's firms to abandon their strategy of keeping retail prices low and becoming more willing to increase them. Some board members said that companies had begun to pass increases in costs directly to sales prices amid expectations the Japanese economy will remain on a recovery track.
Policy makers refrained from considering any changes to the monetary policy, preferring to monitor the economic development after the sales tax hike.
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