The government wants the Bank of Japan to keep its ultraeasy monetary policy intact to ensure an economic recovery, Chief Cabinet Secretary Mikio Aoki indicated Thursday, apparently taking aim at growing views in the BOJ to end the policy.
"The most important thing concerning interest rates is to bring the economy onto a full-scale (recovery) track driven chiefly by private-sector demand," the top government spokesman told reporters.
Indicating his preference for the status quo, Aoki said, "I believe that the (BOJ) Policy Board will take into account the current economic situation and trends in financial markets, and deal appropriately with the situation."
On Wednesday, the BOJ announced it will continue guiding its target rate for unsecured overnight call money to as close to zero as possible to boost the economy.
Within the central bank, however, key officials have been talking about ending the "zero-interest-rate" policy, which has been in place since February last year.
On separate occasions earlier this month, BOJ Deputy Govs. Sakuya Fujiwara and Yutaka Yamaguchi hinted that BOJ board members are entertaining the idea of ending the policy.
Even BOJ Gov. Masaru Hayami has occasionally said he hopes to terminate it.
On Thursday, the daily Asahi Shimbun reported the BOJ will probably tighten its grip on credit in July if its quarterly "tankan" business sentiment survey, to be released Tuesday, points to strong corporate profits and capital spending.