The International Monetary Fund suggested Aug. 13 that Japan should tighten its monetary policy later this year, saying that the current low level of short-term interest rates are not appropriate over the medium term.
The view was included in a report on the economic situation in Japan prepared by an IMF staff mission completed in July. Similar assessments are usually made on an annual basis, and it was the first time the report on Japan was made public before the issue of the IMF's annual report.
Most directors on the IMF Executive Board agreed that Japan's current easy monetary stance should be maintained for now. The Bank of Japan has kept its official discount rate at a record-low 0.5 percent since September 1995 in an effort to keep the economic recovery from losing steam.