Bloomberg (October 31)
“Japan’s central bank insists it still wants to cap long-term market rates,” but their “actions suggest officials are losing the stomach for it.” Kazuo Ueda is dismantling “the cumbersome legacy of his predecessor… more rapidly” than expected “when he took the helm of the Bank of Japan.” Nevertheless, BOJ officials are insisting that the “policy is only being tweaked.” This threatens “the credibility of its communications” as “key parts of the BOJ’s entire approach to setting borrowing costs are being removed or watered down.”
Tags: BOJ, Cap, Central bank, Credibility, Cumbersome, Japan, Legacy, Long term, Market rates, Officials, Predecessor, Threatens, Ueda
Financial Times (February 19)
The Bank of Japan’s “ultra-loose policy is now on a somewhat pre-determined path — towards (if not quite through) the exit door.” The impact of investment flows retreating to Japan may be “most significant for the US Treasury market, where Japan is the largest single foreign holder.” But Japanese investors also hold sizeable market shares “in Australia, New Zealand and parts of western Europe. A shift in policy under Ueda will matter not just for Japan, but for pockets of global debt markets, too.”
Tags: Australia, BOJ, Europe, Exit, Impact, Investment flows, Investors, Japan, Market shares, New Zealand, Retreating, Sizeable, Treasury, U.S., Ueda, Ultra-loose policy