BOJ Governor Ueda’s comments at news conference
Dec 19 (Reuters) - The Bank of Japan raised interest rates on Friday to levels unseen in three decades and signalled its readiness for further hikes, taking another landmark step in ending decades of huge monetary support and near-zero borrowing costs.
In a widely expected move, the BOJ raised short-term interest rates to 0.75% from 0.5% in the first increase since January. The decision was made by a unanimous vote.
Following are excerpts from BOJ Governor Kazuo Ueda’s comments at his post-meeting news conference, which was conducted in Japanese, as translated by Reuters:
POLICY ADJUSTMENTS WILL DEPEND ON DATA AT EACH MEETING
"As for the pace of how we adjust our monetary support, that will depend on economic, price, financial developments at the time. We will update at each meeting our views on the economic, price outlook as well as risks and the likelihood of achieving our forecasts, and make an appropriate decision."
NEUTRAL RATE UNCERTAIN; POLICY TO DEPEND ON ECONOMIC SCENE
"Our estimate on Japan’s neutral rate sits on a pretty wide range. It’s hard to set a pin-point estimate ... We’d like to look at how the economy and prices react to each change in short-term rate."
