A few members said at the central bank’s April 30 meeting that inflation wouldn’t reach 2 percent until after the fiscal year through March 2018, according to minutes released on Wednesday.
Sayuri Shirai proposed that the BOJ say it would meet the goal “in or around” next fiscal year, which starts in April 2016.
The minutes highlight the divergence in views Governor Haruhiko Kuroda is contending with after a slump oil prices and a recession last year stalled his reflation program.
Takehiro Sato and Takahide Kiuchi also offered alternatives to the final decision to say the inflation goal would be achieved around the first half of next fiscal year.
“Kuroda isn’t sailing a stable ship,” said Hideo Kumano, an economist at Dai-ichi Life Research Institute and former BOJ official.
“The division is a big concern for Kuroda as he wants to avoid another split vote.” The policy board voted 8-1 on April 30 to leave unchanged the scale of unprecedented monetary easing.
Four board members including Sato and Kiuchi opposed Kuroda’s decision in October to expand the asset-purchase plan, the BOJ’s closest vote since 2008. Shirai supported the October move.
At the meeting the bank said it would reach the 2 percent inflation target around the first half of next fiscal year. It had previously forecast reaching the target “in or around” the fiscal year that started last month. Sato proposed that the central bank say the target would come in sight around the first half of next fiscal year.
Kiuchi said inflation was likely to accelerate “very moderately,” according to the minutes. Following the BOJ’s decision in April to delay its goal while keeping its policy steady, nine of 36 economists surveyed by Bloomberg pushed back their forecasts for when the central bank will expand monetary easing. Minutes of the BOJ’s May 22 policy board meeting will be released on June 24.
bloomberg.com
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