BoJ’s Nakamara: Now is not the time to consider policy shift

Bank of Japan (BoJ) Board member Toyoaki Nakamura is back on the wires said on Thursday, expressing his take on the potential exit from the central bank’s ultra-loose monetary policy.

Key quotes

Hard to pinpoint timing of policy shift as of now.

It would be risky to change policy on assumption that things would improve moving forward with the Japanese economy.

Now is not the time to consider policy shift.

We can shift policy when Japan's economy sees wages, inflation rising sustainably.

Want to scrutinize firms' profitability in judging timing of policy shift.

Looking at upcoming MOF quarterly business sentiment survey among other data in gauging whether conditions are falling into place for any policy shift.

Market reaction

At the time of writing, the USD/JPY pair is sustaining the range play at around 147.00, down 0.16% on the day.