BOJ Member Warned against Missing Rate Hike Chance: Minutes

Tokyo, March 25 (Jiji Press)--A Bank of Japan policymaker warned against missing an opportunity to raise interest rates at a monetary policy meeting in January, according to the minutes of the meeting released Wednesday.

After its decision to raise the policy rate to 0.75 pct from 0.5 pct last December, the BOJ "should not take too much time examining the impact" of the move, given the urgency of addressing rising prices in Japan, the policymaker was quoted as saying in the minutes of the Jan. 22-23 meeting.

The bank "should proceed with the next step, a rate hike, without missing the appropriate timing," the policymaker continued.

Regarding the timing of the next interest rate hike, most policymakers said that it would be "desirable for the bank to make decisions as appropriate at each monetary policy meeting without having a specific pace in mind."

Meanwhile, one board member said that "even though upside risks to prices had increased, this did not necessitate a policy interest rate hike at every meeting."

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]