Economics

BOJ Watchers Push Back Exit Forecasts

A pedestrian is reflected in an electronic stock board outside a securities firm in Tokyo, Japan, on Friday, July 29, 2016. Shares in Tokyo fluctuated as investors weighed the Bank of Japans decision to expand exchange-traded fund purchases while keeping its bond-buying program and interest rates unchanged.
Photographer: Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg

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By James Mayger, Masahiro Hidaka, and Cynthia Li

March 6, 2018 at 3:00 PM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

Fewer economists see any chance of monetary tightening this year by the Bank of Japan after Haruhiko Kuroda’s renomination as governor and his comments on when the BOJ is likely to start thinking about exit. None forecast any change at this week’s policy meeting.

While the vast majority of 49 economists surveyed by Bloomberg think the central bank is inching closer toward the day it will start winding back its monetary stimulus program, less than one-third of them think it will come this year. That’s down from about half in Bloomberg’s last poll in January.