The International Monetary Fund said Japan’s inflation risks are on the upside, and it recommends the Bank of Japan to be flexible and perhaps move away from its yield curve control program.
“Our advice for the Japanese authorities is that right now monetary policy can remain accommodating, but it needs to prepare itself for the need to maybe start tightening,” IMF Chief Economist Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas said Tuesday in Washington.
The recommendation comes ahead of the BOJ’s policy decision Friday. The bank is widely expected to keep monetary easing unchanged, although there is increasing focus on the fate of its yield control. Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase are among those expecting an adjustment this week.
While the IMF has called for flexibility in Japan’s monetary policy for some time, the remarks Tuesday appear a tad stronger than before.
“Our recommendation is to be bit a more flexible, and maybe move away from the yield curve control that it has,” Gourinchas said.
In new economic projections released Tueday, the IMF forecast Japan’s economy to grow 1.4% this year, before slowing to 1% in 2024.
--With assistance from Hiroyuki Sekine.
