Mizuho CEO Masahiro Kihara signaled he is confident the Japanese lender can meet its long-term target of about ¥1 trillion ($6.8 billion) in annual profit even as trade wars threaten to stifle growth.
Kihara said at the start of the year that Mizuho would aim to achieve that level of net income over the next few years as policy tightening by the Bank of Japan added to optimism among commercial banks. The outlook for the Japanese economy has worsened since then, with U.S. President Donald Trump threatening to impose 25% tariffs on Japan starting Aug. 1.
Before the U.S. trade tariffs were first announced in April, the bank was looking at profit of about ¥1.1 trillion for the current fiscal year, Kihara said in an interview in London. That was reduced to a "conservative” estimate of about ¥950 billion given the trade uncertainty, he said.
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