The Bank of Japan should avoid raising interest rates for now while preparing for an eventual normalization of policy, according to a former BOJ official seen as a possible candidate for deputy governor.
"This isn’t the time for a drastic rate hike, so there is a limit on what the BOJ can do now,” Yuri Okina, the former official and the chair of Japan Research Institute, said in an interview.
Still, monetary policy must be normalized gradually over the longer term as the significance of a range of policy side effects is continuing to grow, she said.