BOJ Policymaker Called for Faster Rate Hikes at Sept. Meeting

Tokyo, Oct. 1 (Jiji Press)--A Bank of Japan policymaker said at the BOJ's latest policy-setting meeting that the central bank needs to accelerate the pace of interest rate hikes, a summary of opinions at the Sept. 17-18 meeting showed Thursday.

At the September meeting, the BOJ Policy Board voted 7-2 to raise its policy interest rate to 1.25 pct, three months after the previous rate hike in June.

According to the summary, a Cabinet Office representative urged the BOJ to "fulfill its accountability" for the rate hike and "examine carefully the cumulative effects of past policy interest rate hikes."

During the meeting, a BOJ Policy Board member said that the interval between rate hikes would be "shorter than before" because economic conditions were "more resilient than expected."

Another member said that the BOJ would "need to accelerate the pace of rate hikes" if there were signs of an upward deviation in prices.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]