Incoming Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said on Sunday that the country’s monetary policy should remain accommodative as a trend, signaling the need to keep borrowing costs low to support a fragile economic recovery.
It was not immediately clear whether Ishiba, who has been an outspoken critic of the Bank of Japan’s aggressive monetary easing in the past, was taking a softer stance with his comments.
“It is something that the Bank of Japan, which has the mandate to achieve price stability, will decide in close cooperation with the government,” Ishiba told public broadcaster NHK when asked about further rate hikes by the central bank.
