Minutes of the January Bank of Japan meeting
- Most members said there is heightening risk that global market volatility could hurt business sentiment, delay shift from deflationary mindset
- Many members said it was appropriate to take additional steps to forestall risks
- A few members said while global market risks are titled to downside, domestic economy, prices had not worsened enough to warrant immediate action
- One of these members said given that highly accommodative financial conditions had been maintained, additional easing measures were not warranted
- One member said now was defining moment for Japan's economy to maintain momentum so as not to halt the virtuous cycle, and that the bank should reinforce QQE
- BOJ staff offered 2 options, one to expand QQE, another to adopt QQE with negative interest rate
- Many members said QQE with negative interest rate would enable the bank to take additional monetary easing measures in three dimensions
- One member said BOJ had enough knowledge about effects, operational issues on negative rates in light of experiences in some european countries
- One member said complex nature of framework proposed at this meeting could cause confusion and anxiety in markets
- One member said introduction of a negative interest rate could aggravate misunderstanding of the boj's policy intention
- One member said transmission channels of QQE with a negative interest rate should not be regarded as different from those of QQE
- Government rep said govt regarded QQE with a negative interest rate proposed at this meeting as necessary for achieving the target of monetary policy
- Govt rep: govt would like BOJ to pay attention to the effects of recent fluctuations in the financial and capital markets
- Headlines via Reuters
