Posts tagged 'Bank of Japan'

BoJ maintains, but Abenomics is still hard

Kate is FT AV’s Asia Correspondent. She joined FT Alphaville in mid-2011 after carrying out various roles in the FT’s London office since 2005: interactive editor, companies reporter, and founding editor of the FT’s Energy Source blog.

Learn more

| Subscribe to Kate's posts
| May 22 05:23 | Comment |

The Bank of Japan’s May statement on monetary policy is out, and it’s basically a big MAINTAIN on its ‘quantitative and qualitative easing’ (QQE) programme.

If anyone was anticipating the BoJ might take this opportunity to point out it is mindful of recent rises in government bond yields — and apparently some were expecting this sort of reassurance, possibly even tweaking maturities purchased — they would be disappointed. Equities traders just seemed relieved that their rally will continue.

However one member, Takahide Kiuchi, proposed the 2 per cent inflation target shift to a “medium to long term” and the new QQE plan itself be designated as “an intensive measure with a time frame of about two years”. Kiuchi’s proposal at this meeting was voted down by the other eight board members. The central bank has, however, already revealed that some members are concerned about the risks of its QQE plans hurting retail investors in Japanese government debt. Read more

Assessing Abenomics

Kate is FT AV’s Asia Correspondent. She joined FT Alphaville in mid-2011 after carrying out various roles in the FT’s London office since 2005: interactive editor, companies reporter, and founding editor of the FT’s Energy Source blog.

Learn more

| Subscribe to Kate's posts
| May 20 12:37 | Comment |

Today in Abenomics, we saw some yen strengthening after Japan’s economy minister Akira Amari made remarks interpreted as indicating the yen had weakened enough:

“People say the excessively strong yen has corrected quite a bit. If the yen continues to weaken steadily from here, negative effects on people’s lives will emerge,” Amari told a Sunday talk show.

All very exciting and the yen strengthened accordingly, allowing us the space to take a longer look at the progress Japan’s reflation experiment has made. Read more

Asian currency wars, exporting deflation and the house price bind

Kate is FT AV’s Asia Correspondent. She joined FT Alphaville in mid-2011 after carrying out various roles in the FT’s London office since 2005: interactive editor, companies reporter, and founding editor of the FT’s Energy Source blog.

Learn more

| Subscribe to Kate's posts
| May 09 12:08 | Comment |

Bank of Korea has done its bit to stoke the currency wars…

Although they insist that it’s not. From BAML’s Jaewoo Lee:

In the press interview, the Governor cited a few main changes since April which led the BoK to cut in May rather than in April: the supplementary budget was finalized; many central banks, including the ECB, turned to easing mode; and the easing can help further with improving sentiments. The Governor, on the other hand, stated that today’s decision was not a response to the yen weakness, contrary to the often-voiced speculation.

 Read more

The risk of yen reversal

| Apr 30 16:10 | Comment |

The yen has gained back 2.4 per cent against the US dollar since it threatened but failed to break Y100 ahead of the most recent, and quiet, Bank of Japan meeting — the first since April 4, when QE on steroids was announced.

Now, we are not suggesting this is definitely the start of a yen correction — if we could predict FX moves for sure we’d be on a yacht, Japan isn’t lacking the political will to give it a further shot, this dip is small in context and we’ve seen its like before — but there is clearly a threat.

Simon Derrick, chief global markets strategist at Bank of New York Mellon, sent through a few thoughts which we think capture that threat quite nicely: Read more

BoJ sees good things, everywhere…

Kate is FT AV’s Asia Correspondent. She joined FT Alphaville in mid-2011 after carrying out various roles in the FT’s London office since 2005: interactive editor, companies reporter, and founding editor of the FT’s Energy Source blog.

Learn more

| Subscribe to Kate's posts
| Apr 26 08:19 | Comment |

It’s been a big day for the Bank of Japan. The QE programme was re-affirmed, as expected, and inflation and growth forecasts were raised, including a new 2015 CPI forecast of 1.9 per cent. It all looks thoroughly positive — especially if you ignore all the assumptions.  Read more

Be excited, be, be excited: BoJ edition

David joined the FT in 2011 as a Marjorie Deane fellow. He covered emerging markets, equities and currencies before making the jump over to FT Alphaville in May 2012.

Learn more

| Subscribe to David's posts
| Apr 08 17:27 | Comment |

Seemingly everybody is benefiting from the Bank of Japan’s decision to splash the cash. Peripheral bond yields in Europe have fallen and high-yielding carry targets such as Mexico and Brazil are being touted as destinations for Kuroda’s cash.

Where that cash ends up will in many ways define the success or failure of the Abe/ Kuroda push since what really matters is what happens after the cash has left the BoJ. Read more

The BoJ massive

David joined the FT in 2011 as a Marjorie Deane fellow. He covered emerging markets, equities and currencies before making the jump over to FT Alphaville in May 2012.

Learn more

| Subscribe to David's posts
| Apr 04 15:27 | Comment |

Gloves off from Kuroda and everyone is very excited…

For those who need a rundown of what the BoJ actually did, here’s a summary from Nomura: Read more

Presenting… the new BoJ [Updated]

Kate is FT AV’s Asia Correspondent. She joined FT Alphaville in mid-2011 after carrying out various roles in the FT’s London office since 2005: interactive editor, companies reporter, and founding editor of the FT’s Energy Source blog.

Learn more

| Subscribe to Kate's posts
| Apr 04 07:20 | Comment |

At least, markets are sure it’s a new dawn for Japanese monetary policy. And yeah, we know: this sort of initial euphoria has fizzled out before — but the new Bank of Japan governors appear to have actually come through with the goods:

BoJ statement pic

Click screenshot for the statement. More to come soon, and in the meantime, see this from the FT’s Ben McLannahan: Read more

Japan’s employers, taking up the Abenomics cause

Kate is FT AV’s Asia Correspondent. She joined FT Alphaville in mid-2011 after carrying out various roles in the FT’s London office since 2005: interactive editor, companies reporter, and founding editor of the FT’s Energy Source blog.

Learn more

| Subscribe to Kate's posts
| Mar 13 10:24 | Comment |

Well, some of them at least. One of the big determinants of whether ‘Abenomics’ manages to pull Japan from its deflationary spiral is through wage growth. Inflation can’t really kick off or arguably even begin without rising wages. One can argue about how important wage growth is, or where it fits in causality-wise — and we’ll come to that later. But it is — or will be — an important signal as to whether this three-pronged approach of the new-ish Japanese government is working.

And actually, it might be catching on. Read more

Japan’s DPJ not so sure about Iwata… and possibly Kuroda, too

Kate is FT AV’s Asia Correspondent. She joined FT Alphaville in mid-2011 after carrying out various roles in the FT’s London office since 2005: interactive editor, companies reporter, and founding editor of the FT’s Energy Source blog.

Learn more

| Subscribe to Kate's posts
| Mar 13 01:39 | Comment |

Excitement about an imminently more pro-active BoJ might take a bit of a tumble on this news out of Tokyo late yesterday.

From the Japan Times:

The Democratic Party of Japan said Tuesday it will support Asian Development Bank President Haruhiko Kuroda as the next Bank of Japan governor but will oppose Gakushuin University professor Kikuo Iwata’s nomination as one of the two BOJ deputy governors because of his extreme stance on monetary policy.

 Read more

Bye bye banknote rule (for real)

David joined the FT in 2011 as a Marjorie Deane fellow. He covered emerging markets, equities and currencies before making the jump over to FT Alphaville in May 2012.

Learn more

| Subscribe to David's posts
| Mar 07 18:05 | Comment |

Abenomics does not suffer rules gladly so the BoJ’s self-imposed ‘banknote rule’ must be getting pretty nervous right about now.

It says the BoJ’s holdings of longer-term Japanese government bonds cannot exceed bank notes in circulation (unless they decide it can, naturally). Read more

Don’t kill the old, pander to them

David joined the FT in 2011 as a Marjorie Deane fellow. He covered emerging markets, equities and currencies before making the jump over to FT Alphaville in May 2012.

Learn more

| Subscribe to David's posts
| Mar 06 09:52 | Comment |

“Whatever we can”, you say? Encouraging words from BoJ governor nominee Kuroda over the weekend (even if comparisons with Mr Draghi are overblown). If Cullen Roche is correct, what happens in Japan over the next year or many could change the future of economic policy. So it’s worth spending a bit more time on what Kuroda’s “can” might actually be.

We’ve argued already that much of the low-hanging fruit of expectations and verbal intervention has already been plucked. Read more

Fantasy central banking

David joined the FT in 2011 as a Marjorie Deane fellow. He covered emerging markets, equities and currencies before making the jump over to FT Alphaville in May 2012.

Learn more

| Subscribe to David's posts
| Mar 05 12:15 | Comment |

Like Top Trumps, just not as much fun…

 Read more

Has the time for BoJ talk passed?

Kate is FT AV’s Asia Correspondent. She joined FT Alphaville in mid-2011 after carrying out various roles in the FT’s London office since 2005: interactive editor, companies reporter, and founding editor of the FT’s Energy Source blog.

Learn more

| Subscribe to Kate's posts
| Mar 04 09:07 | Comment |

BoJ governor nominee Haruhiko Kuroda has already been fairly clear that he wants to expand the asset-purchasing programme, and buy longer-term bonds. So how significant are his Draghi-sounding “whatever we can do” comments, really? Read more

Kuroda’s BoJ nomination is go

| Feb 28 09:03 | Comment |

As was widely tipped early this week, Asian Development Bank president Haruhiko Kuroda has been nominated for Bank of Japan governor, while academic Kikuo Iwata and Hiroshi Nakaso, a BoJ official, were put forward for the two deputy governor roles.

It wasn’t a big surprise: as the FT reports, the yen briefly weakened to 92.6 from 92.4 on the news, before regaining that loss. Read more

Kuroda! The BoJ’s goldilocks

Kate is FT AV’s Asia Correspondent. She joined FT Alphaville in mid-2011 after carrying out various roles in the FT’s London office since 2005: interactive editor, companies reporter, and founding editor of the FT’s Energy Source blog.

Learn more

| Subscribe to Kate's posts
| Feb 25 09:29 | Comment |

This Monday edition of rising Japanese equities/weak yen is brought to you by Haruhiko Kuroda, president of the Asian Development Bank and according to various media reports, the likely nominee for Bank of Japan governor.

Kuroda reportedly said early this month he was quite happy at the ADB and had nearly four years to serve of his third term. But to that we say: Mark Carney! Read more

Japan 2.0 (and that’s a target, mind)

| Jan 22 10:15 | Comment |

Remember how Richard Koo was saying last week that inflationary expectations are actually far more widespread in Japan these days than deflationary expectations? And people fear inflation more than deflation?

We found that idea a bit surprising (and we recommend Krugman for more on the issue) but HSBC made a good argument as to why the concentration on inflation is itself a very legitimate concern. And the idea that recent weakness in the yen might in fact reflect a fear that the BoJ/ MoF will fail to control inflation once it has been loosed (our emphasis): Read more

Has BoJ policy changed THAT much?

Kate is FT AV’s Asia Correspondent. She joined FT Alphaville in mid-2011 after carrying out various roles in the FT’s London office since 2005: interactive editor, companies reporter, and founding editor of the FT’s Energy Source blog.

Learn more

| Subscribe to Kate's posts
| Jan 22 09:06 | Comment |

Are the BoJ’s newly-announced measures really that dramatic?

For all Shinzo Abe’s talk of urgency in meeting the new 2 per cent inflation target, the BoJ itself doesn’t actually expect it to happen that quickly. In the forecasts accompanying today’s statement, the BoJ has maintained the 2013 CPI forecast of 0.4 per cent made back in October — which is probably fair enough as the open-ended programme doesn’t actually start until next year — and only moved its 2014 up to 0.9 per cent from 0.8 per cent. Read more

Wild swings and roundabouts courtesy of the BoJ

Kate is FT AV’s Asia Correspondent. She joined FT Alphaville in mid-2011 after carrying out various roles in the FT’s London office since 2005: interactive editor, companies reporter, and founding editor of the FT’s Energy Source blog.

Learn more

| Subscribe to Kate's posts
| Jan 22 08:18 | Comment |

The Nikkei rose as much as 1 per cent after the BoJ announcement, and then fell nearly as much before recovering somewhat: Read more

Moving targets and a lack of self-belief at the BoJ

David joined the FT in 2011 as a Marjorie Deane fellow. He covered emerging markets, equities and currencies before making the jump over to FT Alphaville in May 2012.

Learn more

| Subscribe to David's posts
| Jan 08 18:55 | Comment |

Oh look, it’s the Abe effect. How exciting. From Reuters:

RTRS – BOJ TO MULL SETTING 2 PCT INFLATION TARGET AT JAN 21-22 MEETING, DOUBLE CURRENT PRICE GOAL – SOURCES

 Read more

Japan, bringing you recession since Q2

Kate is FT AV’s Asia Correspondent. She joined FT Alphaville in mid-2011 after carrying out various roles in the FT’s London office since 2005: interactive editor, companies reporter, and founding editor of the FT’s Energy Source blog.

Learn more

| Subscribe to Kate's posts
| Dec 10 2012 09:34 | Comment |

The third quarter was bad, but it was a revision of Q2 GDP data — from 0.1 to -0.1 per cent, seasonally adjusted and annualised — that puts Japan in official recession:

Japan quarterly qoq annualised seasonally-adjusted GDP - Soc Gen  Read more