Bank of Japan loosens yield curve control, pledging ‘greater flexibility’

Japan’s central bank on Friday loosened its yield curve control, roiling the financial markets and underscoring concerns about its protracted monetary easing on financial markets and the real economy.

In a policy statement, the Bank of Japan said it will continue to allow 10-year Japanese government bond yields to fluctuate in the range of around plus and minus 0.5 percentage points from its 0% target level — though it will offer to purchase 10-year JGBs at 1% through fixed-rate operations. This move effectively expands its tolerance by a further 50 basis points.

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The BOJ pledged to “conduct yield curve control with greater flexibility, regarding the upper and lower bounds of the range as references, not as rigid limits, in its market operations,” citing the need to remain nimble given “extremely high uncertainties for Japan’s economic activity and prices.”

In what was BOJ Governor Kazuo Ueda’s first major policy change since he took the helm in since April this year, the central bank also kept its ultra-loose interest rate intact, electing to hold its short-term interest rate target at -0.1% after its July policy meeting. It also raised its median forecast for inflation to 2.5% for fiscal 2023, up from its 1.8% prediction in April.

“In practical terms, this ‘flexibility’ language is similar to that used in late 2022, when the 10yr JGB target range was increased from +/-25bp to +/-50bp,” said Stephen Halmarick, Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s chief economist in a note. “The ‘flexibility’ does represent, therefore, some tightening in monetary policy.”

Years of accommodative monetary policy in Japan — even as global central banks have tightened policy in the last 12 months — have concentrated carry trades in the Japanese yen. Carry trades involve borrowing at a lower interest rate to invest in other assets that promise higher returns.

Yields for the 10-year JGB touched their highest since September 2014 as the BOJ announcement triggered a sell-off, while the yen strengthened against the dollar.

The Nikkei and Topix benchmark stock indexes deepened losses after the announcement, while Japanese bank shares rallied in Tokyo, with Mitsubishi UFJ jumping more than 4%.

“Sustainable and stable achievement of the price stability target of 2%, accompanied by wage increases, has not yet come in sight, and thus the Bank needs to patiently continue with monetary easing under Quantitative and Qualitative monetary easing with yield curve control,” the BOJ added in a statement following its July meeting.

In the BOJ’s quarterly outlook, the bank said it expects the Japanese economy to grow above its projected potential, given the virtuous cycle that is emerging from higher income that has partly led to an improvement in consumer sentiment and consequently, increased spending.

The central bank also said “signs of change have been seen in firms’ wage- and price-setting behavior.”

The BOJ expects further upward pressure on wages to come from Japan’s output gap, which could potentially turn positive around mid-fiscal 2023 before growing at a moderately slower pace after. It would increase consumers’ purchasing power in the process.

Output gap refers to the difference between an economy’s actual output and its potential output at full capacity.

However, the central bank has said inflation will slow toward the end of this year.

On Friday, the BOJ downgraded its inflation median forecast for 2024 to 1.9% from 2% previously, and retained its 2025 forecast for 1.6%.

“It still seems likely that inflation will slow over the coming months as lower import prices weigh on goods inflation, which has accounted for the bulk of the recent acceleration in underlying inflation,’ Marcel Thieliant, head of Asia-Pacific at Capital Economics, said in a note.

“If the economy enters a recession in the second half of the year as we anticipate, the case for policy tightening will diminish,” he added.